Creighton at Dayton: Second Half
November 14, 2009
The Dayton Flyers were not about to let their season start off on Creighton\'s terms.
With a first half to forget about, head coach Brian Gregory rallied the troops and got his team to come out strong in the second half. Dayton played at the level expected of them by many of the Flyer faithful, and were too much for the Blue Jays in the second half, outscoring them 49-34 to begin their season 1-0 with a 90-80 win.
Dayton came into the second half very aggressively, going straight to the basket in their first several possessions. Chris Wright led the charge, scoring four points in the first minute and half, as well as drawing two Creighton fouls. After a Chris Johnson three, the Flyers had retaken the lead with 18:15 left. By the first TV timeout, UD led 58-52.
The game slowed after the first few minutes of the half, and Dayton seemed to revert to what it had been doing in the first half: shooting threes. After making three of its first five attempts in the second half, the team kept right on shooting, and was struggling to score as much. However, Dayton\'s defense tightened up and Creighton was unable to do much scoring either, so the lead hovered around five for the next six minutes.
Ethan Wragge hit a three off a wacky defensive deflection with 8:20 left to give Creighton the lead back at 67-66. Dayton came right back with a Devin Searcy layup and a Paul Williams jumper to make it 70-67.
The game stayed close to the waning moments. Creighton\'s Wayne Runnels missed the front end of a one and London Warren made a layup to push Dayton\'s lead to 75-71.
Creighton would score to bring the lead down, but Dayton kept scoring as well. Chris Wright and Chris Johnson provided most of the scoring in crunch time and Warren provided some valuable assists to keep the Flyers ahead.
When Marcus Johnson hit a jumpshot with a minute left to give Dayton an 87-78 lead, the game was effectively over. Creighton was not fouling to extend the game, and it ended with a Dayton win, 90-80.
Wright led all scorers with 25 points, and Chris Johnson finished with 18 points and 15 rebounds.
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