Flyers Defeat East Tennessee, Improve to 7-2

By: Katie Obear – Staff Writer

The University of Dayton men’s Basketball team earned their seventh win of the season over the East Tennessee State University Buccaneers on Saturday at UD Arena, 75-61. This was the Flyers’ fifth straight win and improves the team to 7-2.  

The last matchup between UD and ETSU was in 2010, and resulted in a win for the Buccaneers. Now, the all-time series is 2-1 Flyers.

“Like I told our guys, we played a really good team,” said head coach Archie Miller in the postgame press conference. “They are going to win a lot of games this year and the fact that we were able to get nine blocks, seven steals, and 18 turnovers, there’s some things we can really start to build on.”

Senior guard Charles Cooke lead the Flyers in total points, 12 in each half, totaling 24 points for the game.

“We just wanted to get more [shots] early and hit them early, throw the first punch,” said Cooke. “We got a good start and we finished strong.”

“My team is beginning to be more force, more patient, more aware of game situations and more confident,” Cooke continued. “We are still a work in progress, just trying to work on a lot of things.”

Senior forward Kendall Pollard started his first game of the season, and recorded 12 points and 12 rebounds during his 31 minutes of play.

“He gives guys confidence, he is an experienced player, knows what he is doing and it’s good to have him back,” Miller said of his big man.

Pollard was out for most of the season’s start, but now that he is back he has begun to prove himself as a force to be reckoned with.

This was junior forward Sam Miller’s first game back after battling an illness earlier that had forced him to miss last week’s game and practices this week.

The Flyers are taking this week off as they wrap up this semester and will return in Chicago, Illinois on December 17 as they take on Northwestern University.