Dayton Flyers rally in second half to win exhibition

FRIDAY’S GAME

Austin Peay at Dayton, TWC SportsChannel, 95.7, 1290

Early last week, Archie Miller said his team wasn’t ready to play for 40 minutes. He could expect to get 25 minutes out of his team, but the other 15 were a question mark.

On Friday, in the team’s only public exhibition game, Miller got about 10 solid minutes out of the Dayton Flyers.

Dayton avoided an embarrassment a week before the season opener, rallying from a 16-point deficit to beat the Findlay Oilers 76-69 in front of the first sellout crowd (13,455) to see an exhibition game at UD Arena.

“What happened out there tonight quite frankly is not good enough to beat anybody on our schedule,” Miller said.

Dayton’s sixth-year coach credited Findlay, a Division II program that finished 20-8 last season. Three seasons ago, in the second exhibition game of a season that saw the Flyers reach the Elite Eight, they trailed Findlay early in the second half and rallied to win 96-87.

“We tried to schedule as difficult as possible here early in the year to challenge us,” Miller said. “They’re one of the best programs in the state, not only Ohio, but nationally recognized. They do a tremendous job with their system. They’re very tough minded and they have some versatility at the front-court positions, and we knew they were going to challenge us. It was an excellent opportunity for us to watch ourselves get better in some things. I’m disappointed quite frankly in our intensity level to start the game.”

The Oilers hit 6 of 7 shots from the field in the first four minutes, building a 15-9 lead. Findlay stretched the lead to 26-10 at the 9:49 mark. After making their first three shots from the field, the Flyers missed their next nine.

Dayton was starting to feel the pressure to perform in front of the sellout.

“We wanted to give them their money’s worth,” senior Charles Cooke said. “We’ve got Flyer Nation behind us, and there’s a lot of expectations. We’ve got to meet them. We’ve got to come out of the gates ready to go, and tonight we didn’t do that against a Division II team.”

Cooke led the comeback, scoring 15 of his 19 points in the second half. Josh Cunningham scored 18. Scoochie Smith scored 12 of his 16 in the first half, including a 3-pointer with 16 seconds left to cut the halftime deficit to 41-34.

Dayton didn’t lead until Sam Miller hit a 3-pointer with 7:07 remaining to give UD a 60-59 lead. The Flyers got back into the game with transition offense, scoring 12 points on the fast break in the second half.

“Offensively, we’ve got to learn to play with one another a little better,” Miller said. “It’s early in the season. Guys are in there with new roles and figuring some things out, but fortunately for us, defensively, we got some transition opportunities. They turned it over 16 times, and we scored 15 points off their turnovers. The flurry of activity there in the second half, defense to offense, was really important.”