[B]Charlotte extends Flyers’ skid to 5
49ers muscle past UD in 2nd half, 73-65[/B]
By Bucky Albers, Dayton Daily News
DAYTON - Coach Brian Gregory warned his Dayton Flyers at halftime Saturday afternoon that they would see a more aggressive Charlotte basketball team in the second half than the one they saw in the first 20 minutes.
Gregory knew the 49ers would not take too kindly to being outrebounded, 17-13, and limited to two from the offensive board in the first half, even though they led, 40-33, at the break.
“Coach told us they would attack the glass really hard,” sophomore forward Norman Plummer said, “but we weren’t ready for the challenge.”
Charlotte (9-5), a newcomer to the Atlantic 10 Conference this year, grabbed 27 rebounds to Dayton’s 16 and collected nine of those on the offensive end as it won its second straight A-10 game and dealt Dayton (8-8) its fifth consecutive defeat, 73-65.
Charlotte took the lead (27-26) with 5:02 left in the first half and led the rest of the way. UD reduced the deficit to five (65-60) when No. 33, Jimmy Binnie, sank a 3-pointer with 3:33 remaining, but the Flyers failed to score on their next four possessions and it was over.
Dayton hadn’t lost five in a row since Oliver Purnell’s third UD team went down five straight times in 1996-97, but this loss was hardly unexpected. The Flyers played hard — the effort might have been good enough to win Wednesday’s game at Fordham — but they didn’t make enough shots to knock off a team of Charlotte’s caliber.
Notorious for its shaky free throw shooting, Dayton was perfect at the line but didn’t get there often enough. Each team had 23 field goals, but Charlotte sank 19 of 29 at the line while Dayton made 11 of 11. With each squad having eight 3-pointers, those 11 extra free throws separated the teams in the boxscore.
Sophomore guard Lee Goldwire scored 23 points to lead the 49ers, who got 14 from forward Curtis Withers, 13 from forward De’Angelo Alexander and 11 from Marcus Bennett — no relation to UD’s Marques Bennett.
Plummer scored 14 points, 12 of them in the first half, and grabbed seven rebounds to lead UD in both categories. A crowd of 12,098 saw the game at UD Arena.