Dayton Cruises 72 - 54

Behind 22 points from junior guard Brian Roberts, the Dayton Flyers used a stifling first-half defensive effort to cruise to a 72-54 victory over the Richmond Spiders on Saturday afternoon at UD Arena.

With the win the Flyers improve to 13-6 on the season and 3-2 in the Atlantic 10 conference, while remaining a perfect 12-0 at home.

The big story in this game was Dayton's first half defense. The Flyers held a 32-8 advantage at the break, tying them for the best defensive half by a UD team in its "Modern Era" (since 1947).

Roberts' 22 came on 8-of-13 shooting - 4-for-5 from beyond the arc - as he dished out three assists.

Junior forward Jimmy Binnie and senior forward Monty Scott were the only other Flyers in double-figures as they scored 12 and 11 points respectively. Scott was one rebound shy of a double-double as he grabbed nine boards, while Binnie snagged four of his own and converted nine of the Flyers first 11 points.

Sophomore forward Charles Little chipped in eight points, including two crowd-pleasing dunks while adding a season-high seven rebounds.

The Flyers shot an outstanding 60 percent from the field - 53 percent from the three-point line - and out rebounded the Spiders 40-to-20. Defensively, the Flyers held Richmond to only 37 percent shooting for the game.

Richmond opened the second half on an 11-5 run through first 4:10, but after a media timeout, Dayton scored eight-straight points to take a 45-19 lead with 13:13 left in the game.

The Spiders would whittle the lead down to 23, 57-35, with 6:02 left, before the Flyers put the clamps down again defensively. After a breakaway dunk by freshman guard Marcus Johnson gave Dayton a 67-41 lead with 1:42 left, UD head coach Brian Gregory used every player available on his bench en route to the victory.

Ryan Butler and Dan Geriot led the way for the Spiders with 11 and 10 points respectively.

The start of the game was just like the weather outside -- cold and icy. Each team had a pair of turnovers and zero points through the first 2:17 of play. Binnie was the only warm aspect of the intro, as he hit a pair of treys to put UD up 6-0.

Richmond's Drew Crank gave the Spiders their first points of the day on a put back at the 15:38 mark, but the Flyers would then go on a 24-0 run over the next 12:43, that saw another three-pointer from Binnie and two electrifying dunks by Little.

During that stretch, the Flyer defense was phenomenal. Dayton held Richmond without a field goal, while forcing six turnovers with two steals and two blocks.

The Spiders finally ended their nightmare when Butler laid in a basket with 2:57 left in the half. Dayton is on the road Wednesday at Duquesne. Game time is 7:00 p.m. EST.