DAYTON TOPS WRIGHT STATE IN CROSSTOWN BATTLE
DAYTON, Ohio – The Dayton Flyers won the crosstown battle with the Wright State Raiders by a score of 77-69 on Tuesday night at UD Arena. Dayton improves their record to 5-3 and Wright State falls to 4-3.
Dayton raced out to an early 14-4 lead behind a strong post presence from Casey Nance and Justine Raterman. The Flyers maintained their intensity, despite hot three-point shooting from the Raiders, and led 41-30 at halftime.
Freshman Ally Mallot led Dayton in scoring at the half with ten points on 4-6 shooting. Fellow freshman standout Andrea Hoover chipped in with 8 points at the break and Justine Raterman added 7 more.
The Flyers jumped out to their largest lead of the game in the second half. Strong play by Raterman, Hoover, and Nance propelled Dayton to an 18 point lead with 10:19 remaining in the game. However, the Raiders would not go down without a fight as they mounted a second half comeback.
Wright State cut the Dayton lead to just four points with under a minute remaining in the game. Coming out of a Dayton timeout, freshman Ally Mallot stepped up with a huge bucket in the paint. The Flyers then forced a defensive stop and Patrice Lalor sunk two big free throws to seal the victory for Dayton.
Dayton had a very even scoring balance as four Flyers reached double digits. Season leading scorer Justine Raterman again paced the team with a double-double of 18 points and 10 rebounds. Hoover tallied 16 points, Malott netted 14, and Nance scored 10.
Kim Demmings led Wright State with 20 points and was the high scorer in the contest.
For the game, Dayton only committed eight turnovers compared to 16 for Wright State. The Flyers capitalized and scored 15 points off the Raider errors.
The Flyers were playing their second game in three days and allowed the Raiders to creep back into the contest. Similar to Sunday’s game against Boston College, Dayton managed to hold on and make big plays at the end of the game to come out with a victory.
Dayton now has a two-week break from the action as their next game is on Tuesday, December 20 at 4:00 p.m. vs. Illinois in Las Vegas, Nevada. They will be competing in the Las Vegas Holiday Hoops tournament and also play against Gonzaga on December 21.
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