Flyers Upset Marquette, 89-75 To Win Chicago Invitational

For the second straight year, the Dayton Flyers proved it could tame a nationally-ranked beast from the Big East.

After knocking off Pittsburgh and Louisville last season, the Flyers upended the No. 15/15 Marquette Golden Eagles 89-75 to win the 2008 Chicago Invitational Challenge.

Chris Wright led UD with his third consecutive double-double after recording 13 points and 13 rebounds. He was named the Most Valuable Player after recording three double-doubles in the tournament's four games.

UD's Wright, Charles Little and Rob Lowery were named to the all-tournament team and head coach Brian Gregory improved to 2-for-2 in tournament championships after winning the 2003 Maui Invitational.

Rob Lowery added a career-high 21 points. London Warren had five of his season-high seven points from the free throw line and Chris Johnson added his first career double-double as well with 12 points and 11 boards.

Dayton improved to 6-0 and once again won by sticking with its two principles - defense and rebounding. UD held a 42-39 advantage on the glass and forced Marquette to shoot 39 percent from the field. In addition, the Dayton bench came up with a monsterous performance out-scoring the Golden Eagles' reserves 48-5.

In recent years the Flyers have proved they can handle the big-name programs. The Flyers are 5-2 in the last three years against BCS programs and have won three consecutive games against Big East opponents.

After breaking a 13-year-old record for 3-point shooting futility on Friday with an 0-for-24 performance, the Flyers broke the string with a Luke Fabrizus trey at the 7:22 mark in the first half.

The Flyers used a 16-7 run in the second half to pull away from Marquette. Wright started the run with a posterizing dunk at the 13:22 mark to bring the crowd to its feet. Chris Johnson then connected on a three-point play to extend the Flyer advantage to 13.

Lowery added a floater in the lane to give Dayton a 65-51 lead with 9:26 to go. After two Marquette free throws, Chris Johnson connected on a three-pointer to make it a 68-53 Flyer lead.

But the Flyers got into foul trouble early on in the second half which allowed Marquette to get to the line and cut the Flyer advantage to 10 at 72-62 with 5:16 to go.

The Flyers closed the game by connecting at the free throw line. Johnson hit two free throws to push the Flyer advantage to 81-67 with just over two minutes to play. Marcus Johnson, Chris Johnson and Warren would help ice the game with free throws down the stretch.

Dayton led by as many as eight early on in the first half and controlled the tempo. Wright would add a layup at the 3:23 mark of the first half to put the Flyers ahead 33-26, but the Golden Eagles would go on a 6-0 run to narrow the contest to one at the end of the half.

Dayton shot 46 percent from the floor and 5-of-8 at the free throw line in the first half. Lowery had 11 points on 5-of-7 shooting while Wright collected four points and five rebounds. UD's bench would out score Marquette's 18-0 as well.

In the second half a Wright dunk and a three-point play by Stephen Thomas helped Dayton extend their lead back to seven at 45-38 early on. But the Flyers would get into foul trouble early on as the Golden Eagles would reach the bonus just four minutes into the second half.

UD would finish the game shooting 30-of-57 from the floor, 25-of-39 at the free throw line and had six steals and five blocks.

Dayton returns home to UD Arena to face the Troy Trojans on Tuesday, Dec. 2 beginning at 7:30 p.m. ET.