Where does the combined points total of 85 rank among the lowest-scoring games in UD history? Only six games since 1950 have had fewer points. Here’s a quick glance at those games and the one other 85-point game Dayton has played.
68 points: Dayton 36, North Carolina State 32 (Dec. 28, 1959)
Wolfpack coach Everett Case played a slow-down against Dayton in Raleigh, N.C. It worked for a half. Dayton trailed 19-17 but rallied in the second half. Garry Roggenburk led the Flyers with 16 points.
Dayton and N.C. State will meet for the first time since this game at 4 p.m. Thursday on the second day of the Battle 4 Atlantis. The Wolfpack lost 80-74 to No. 3 Kansas in the first round.
74 points: Dayton 41, Army 33 (Dec. 23, 1964)
Army played stall ball against a Dayton team that had averaged better than 80 points in its previous six games. Army led 19-18 at halftime. Don Donoher, in his first season as Dayton coach, switched to what he called a “zone offense” in the second half, and Dayton pulled ahead with eight minutes to play.
Hank Finkel led the Flyers with 13 points. Henry Burlong saved Dayton by scoring 11 of his 13 points in the last seven minutes.
75 points: Dayton 53, Roanoke 22 (Jan. 9, 1978)
The Dayton Daily News headline read, “Flyers yawn to victory.” Roanoke played a slow-down game, which coach Ed Green told everyone he was going to do before the game. “Bring your rocking chair,” he said. “You may want to take a nap.”
“You’ve got 7,000 fans who came out on a night like this, and they deserve better,” Donoher said of Roanoke’s strategy.
Jim Paxson led Dayton with 15 points on 7-of-10 shooting.
81 points: Cincinnati 44, Dayton 37 (Dec. 20, 1962)
This time, Dayton played a slow-down game against a top-ranked UC team that had won national championships the last two seasons and would lose in the final this season. Dayton took 49 shots in the first half in its previous game and 11 in the first half in this one.
The Bearcats pulled away in the final minutes. Gordie Hatton scored 16 for UD.
82 points: Cincinnati 42, Dayton 40 (Feb. 11, 1978)
Each team made 17 field goals. UC made two more free throws. Dayton’s Jack Zimmerman missed a potential game-tying shot at the buzzer. Jim Rhoden scored 14 for Dayton.
83 points: Dayton 60, Miami 23 (Dec. 29, 2001)
“Nobody was quite certain whether it was Dayton’s aggressive defense or Miami’s pathetic shooting that resulted in such a poor performance by the RedHawks,” wrote Bucky Albers in the Dayton Daily News, “who made only 13 percent of their shots in losing their third straight game and third in a row to the Flyers. It was probably a little of both.”
Miami missed its first 16 shots and scored eight points in the first half. Dayton led 20-8 at halftime and put the game away with a 29-1 run early in the second half.
85 points: Dayton 45, Miami 40 (Jan. 6, 2009)
It was a 17-17 game at halftime. Chris Wright scored five of his game-high 14 points in the final 6:07 to lead Dayton to the victory.
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