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Duquesne at Dayton, 4 p.m. Saturday, Time Warner Ch. 1311 and 311, 95.7, 1290
Fordham has been one of the Atlantic 10's best rebounding teams during conference play, but Dayton found out a way to keep those board brutes from becoming a factor: seldom miss a shot until the game was out of reach.
The Flyers tied a program record for 3-pointers made by going 15-for-21 on their way to a 96-51 win before 12,131 fans at UD Arena Wednesday, their largest victory margin ever in an A-10 game.
Getting a welcome breather after three straight drubbings, the Flyers (11-7, 1-3 A-10) started 18-for-23 from the field and hit 65.5 percent in the first half while building a 52-23 lead. They blitzed the Rams (5-14, 1-3) with a 26-7 surge to finish the opening 20 minutes.
"I just feel good for those guys," UD coach Archie Miller said of his players. "We've been through a lot this season, a lot of guys contributing. When you hit any type of rough spot, everything feels like the world is coming to an end. But we just stayed true to who we are.
“Now that we got off the schneid a little bit, hopefully we can get some confidence back.”
The Flyers were led by Kevin Dillard with 22 points and eight assists, while Vee Sanford had 19 points and Matt Derenbecker 11.
Dillard went 5-for-6 on 3-pointers, Derenbecker 3-for-4, Sanford 4-for-6 and Khari Price 2-for-2.
UD also hit 15 treys on Jan. 9, 1997 in a 72-63 win over Wright State.
“I don’t think we should shoot a (high) volume of 3-point shots. I think there’s certain guys who have a little more rope to take some,” Miller said. “But this deal for us is about defending, getting better, learning how to play with one another, don’t turn the ball over and if you’re open, shoot it.”
The Flyers avoided going 0-4 in the A-10 for only the second time since becoming a member in 1995-96. They even cured their turnover woes, at least for a game. After averaging more than 20 through three conference games, they tied a season-low with eight. They also had a season-best 24 assists.
Fordham coach Tom Pecora, who was handcuffed by not having star Chris Gaston (knee), called three timeouts in the first half, but nothing could stop the onslaught.
“This is not an 0-3 team. The records go out the window,” Pecora said of the Flyers. “When you see who they played and where they played the games, they were a team that was hungry and obviously fired up to get a win at home. They jumped our bones early, and our young guys didn’t respond.
“They’re a good basketball team and much better than their record.”
Flyers in skirmish: Multiple UD basketball players were involved in an altercation on campus Saturday night that also included other students, according to Major Randy Groesbeck of the UD Department of Public Safety.
The incident occurred at the corner of Lowes and Lawnview Sts. Groesbeck wouldn’t identify the players in the report.
University spokesman Teri Rizvi, responding in an email, said: “Public safety officers investigated an incident over the weekend that involved a confrontation between students. A window was broken, but the officers were not able to determine who broke it or how it was broken. No charges will be filed either criminally or through the student conduct system.”
“There was nothing there,” Miller said. “It was little bit of a verbal against verbal more than anything. There’s nothing our guys are going through (in the disciplinary process).”
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