Led by sophomore Chris Johnson, the University of Dayton men's basketball team opened conference play with a thrilling 78-72 overtime win over the Duquesne Dukes Saturday.

Johnson scored 26 points and pulled down 20 rebounds, both career highs for him. No Flyer has had a 20-20 game since Ryan Perryman put up the same numbers against Duquesne in 1998.

"I was just trying to do the things I'm capable of doing, bring energy to the team and just play hard," Johnson said.

Junior Chris Wright finished the game with 16 points and 11 rebounds and senior Marcus Johnson added 12 points for the Flyers. Chris Johnson's performance was the talk after the game, however.

"You're seeing a great young player blossoming right in front of you," Head Coach Brian Gregory said. "He came up with some big offensive rebounds on some missed free throws during a stretch when we really needed them. He had a heck of a first [conference] game."

It was clear from the start it was an Atlantic 10 game. The tempo was fast throughout the contest and the game was physical from the beginning. With nine minutes left in the first half, Rob Lowery had to leave the game after being hit with a hard screen set by Duquesne's Bill Clark. This got the crowd even more into the game, and they never let up in showing its support for the Flyers throughout the afternoon.

"Any conference win is a good win and puts us in a better position as we go through conference play, so we just have to keep winning games," Wright said.

Duquesne got off to a quick start and took a 16-5 lead thanks to a 14-0 run. The Dukes had early success getting into the lane and played aggressive defense that gave UD trouble. The Flyers missed some open looks but picked it up on both ends of the court, going on an 11-0 run to tie the game 20-20.

Dayton went into halftime with a five-point lead, but the second half went back-and-forth with neither team able to pull away. The referees took control of the game, not allowing it to get out of hand after some hard fouls on both sides. Forty-nine fouls were called and 67 free throws were taken in the game. Wright took an elbow to the eye going up for a rebound late in the second half. He had a bandage on the cut and could only see out of one eye for the rest of the game.

The Dukes looked primed to pull off the upset after Jason Duty drew a foul on Wright behind the three point line. He got Wright to leave his feet on a pump fake with under four seconds to play and Duquesne down one. Duty made the first free throw to tie the game 63-63 but missed the next two. The Flyers were unable to get a shot and the game went into overtime.

UD turned it on in overtime scoring the first seven points of the extra period. A deep inbounds pass to Marcus Johnson that translated into a dunk put the Flyers up by eight with 40 seconds to play, all but sealing the win.

Winning the A-10 opener was crucial for the Flyers which take on a 2-12 Fordham team Wednesday at Madison Square Garden in New York City. UD faces off with Xavier Saturday, so the Flyers must be careful not to overlook the Rams.

"We're not looking ahead, we're just focused on taking one game at a time which is how we were able to get the win today," Chris Johnson said.

Dayton committed 18 turnovers and missed 14 of its 40 free throw attempts. They escaped with a tough conference win but Gregory knows there are areas that need improvement.

"In this league you take a win, put it away and feel good about it," Gregory said. "At the same time there's no question that there are some areas in the game that we dramatically need to improve. We had some tremendous individual performances and some tremendous individual plays, but we have a lot of work to do."