2011 Old Spice Classic | Day 1 Evening Session-Thread

By Paul Casey Gotham

ORLANDO, FL — The Old Spice Classic rolls on with a pair of evening games.

University of Dayton (Atlantic 10) vs. Wake Forest (Atlantic Coast Conference)

The Flyers are 12-5 against BCS opponents in the last four seasons. Dayton’s 12 victories have come against Ole Miss (twice), North Carolina, Illinois, Louisville, West Virginia, Georgia Tech, Marquette,Auburn, Cincinnati, Seton Hall and Pittsburgh.

The 2011 Old Spice Classic will be the fourth consecutive in-season tournament Dayton will have participated in. The Flyers won the Chicago Invitational Challenge in 2008, played in the Puerto Rico Tip-Off and came in second at the Global Sports Main Event last season. Next season, the Flyers will play in the DIRECT TV Charleston Classic.

Dayton has won two straight and three of the last five against ACC opponents.

The Flyers are second in the Atlantic 10 in assists per game (18.7) and assist-to-turnover ratio (1.4).

The Flyers were picked to finish sixth in the 2011-12 Atlantic 10 preseason poll. Chris Johnson was named a preseason A-10 Second Team selection.

Chris Johnson, a three-time Atlantic 10 award winner, scored a season-high 19 points against UNCWilmington. Johnson is tied for the team lead rebounding (6.3 rpg) and is third in scoring (11 ppg).

Paul Williams leads Dayton in scoring averaging 13.3 points per game and has scored in double figures in two games this season. Both of his double-digit scoring efforts have come off the bench.

Matt Kavanaugh leads the A-10 in offensive rebounding with 4.3 per game. He snagged seven
offensive boards against UNC-Wilmington.

Kevin Dillard, a transfer from Southern Illinois and the 2009 Missouri Valley Conference Rookie of the Year, is averaging 6.0 assists per game. He scored a season-high 18 points against UNC-Wilmington.

There is a marked difference in Dayton’s offensive efficiency this season. Last year UD shot .410 from the field. Through three games this season, the Flyers have a .489 field goal percentage.

Wake Forest is 2-1 all-time against Dayton with the last meeting coming in 1960. The teams met twice that season: the Deacons posted a 61-50 win at the Dixie Classic in Raleigh in late December before falling 62-45 at Dayton in a matchup of top 20-ranked teams a month later.

The Deacons defeated the Flyers, 66-57, in their fi rst-ever meeting on Feb. 28, 1959, in Wake Forest’s regular season finale in Winston-Salem.

Wake Forest broke a halftime tie with a 17-6 run to open the second period, en route to a 93-79 defeat of NC Central on
Sunday at the Joel Coliseum in Winston-Salem. Travis McKie and C.J. Harris continued to lead the Demon Deacons, as the two each scored 20+ points for the second straight game. McKie fi nished with a career-high 25 points, while Harris had 22 for his third 20+ point performance in as many games this season.

McKie was 9-for-15 from the floor, including 4-of-5 from 3-point range. He also led the Deacons with seven rebounds
and added a pair of assists and a steal on the night. Harris scored 18 of his 22 points in the second half. He went 8-for-11 from the field, including 2-of-2 from beyond the arc, and dished out four assists. A total of fi ve Deacons were in double figures in the scoring column. Nikita Mescheriakov scored a career-high 15 points, while Tony Chennault chipped in 13. Chase Fischer came off the bench to score 10 points.

 

Fairfield (Metro-Atlantic Athletic) vs. Arizona State (Pac 12)

Tonight marks the first time that the Stags and the Sun Devils have met in a game. The Stags have played other Pac-12 teams in their history, including California, UCLA, Utah, and Washington. Fairfield secured its only win against a Pac-
12 team during the 1978-79 season with an 81-58 decision over California. The Stags played Utah twice, both before it was a Pac- 10 member. The Utes posted a 71-65 win in 1981-82 and an 85-53 decision in 1987-88. Both games were part of the Utah Classic tournament. The Stags also dropped a 70-60 game to Washington in the 1987-88 campaign. The last time that Fairfield played a Pac 10 team was in 1999-2000 when they fell to UCLA by a 76-57 count. The UCLA game was the third game in a one-week road trip that also sent Fairfield to Kansas and UNLV to start the 1999-2000 campaign.

Maurice Barrow recorded a double-double with a team-high 15 points and 11 rebounds as the Fairfield University
men’s basketball team posted a 73-52 win over the College of the Holy Cross this afternoon. The Stags led by two points at
halftime, 31-29, but Holy Cross started the second half with a three pointer from Phil Beans and a layup by Justin Burrell to take a 34-31 lead with 18:34 remaining. The three-point  lead remained intact at 36-33 before Fairfield scored six straight points to take the lead for good at 39-36 with 15 minutes remaining. Holy Cross came within a point at 39-38 after a layup by R.J. Evans, but those would be the last Crusader points for more than three minutes. The drought enabled
Fairfield to go on a 8-0 run to take its biggest lead to that point at 47-38 with 13:14 remaining. Barrow and Colin Nickerson each converted a three-point play during that run which stretched the Fairfield lead. The Stags took their first double-digit lead at 51-40 with 10:52 on the clock following a lay up from Barrow, and never let Holy Cross come within 10 points the rest of the game.Rakim Sanders and Ryan Olander each had 13 points for Fairfield.

After posting just three 20-win seasons in the previous 25 seasons, ASU posted three 20-win seasons under Herb Sendek in his first five years. ASU was 8-22 in Coach Sendek’s first year (2006-2007), but is 81-55 (.596) in past five and giving up just 61.9 ppg. in his 166 games as Sun Devil head coach. Seven lettermen return including 2010-11 All-Pac-10 second-team and first-team Pac-10 All-Academic performer Trent Lockett. ASU is off to a 1-2 start with all three games
decided by less than six points. ASU beat Montana State 78-72 in the opener (Nov. 11), fell to to hot shooting
Pepperdine 66-60 (Nov. 15) and then got beat by New Mexico 76-71 on Nov. 18.

Junior wings Carrick Felix and Trent Lockett have jumped out of the gates with good starts through three games. Felix, a junior college transfer last year as a sophomore, had 20 points, seven boards and was 7-of-8 from the free throw line in a career-high matching 39 minutes vs. New Mexico on Nov. 18. He also has eight steals on the year and is 18-of-20 (.900) from the free throw line. Felix saw action in 30 games last year and showed great flashes but was sidelined by illness in the middle of year that basically cut his season in half. Lockett had his second career double-double with 17 points/10 rebounds vs. MSU and followed that up with 23 points vs. Pepperdine. He also added a career-high four steals vs. MSU
and has 33 double-figure scoring games. He has led ASU in scoring 15 times in his career. The Golden Valley, Minn. native averaged 13.4 points and 5.3 boards in 30.7 minutes last year (37.3 minutes, 17.7 ppg. and 7.7 this year). As the Sun Devils head towards a neutral site, probably worth mentioning that Lockett averaged more in the 14 games away Tempe last year (15.2) than in home games (11.8).