The Dayton Flyers got 31 points from Brian Roberts as they upset the #6 Pittsburgh Panthers, 80-55 at the UD Arena. Marcus Johnson also scored 15 points while Kurt Huelsman added 12. UD shot 52% from the floor while holding the Panthers to 30%. It's the largest win over a ranked opponent in UD basketball history. The Flyers improve to 11-1, winners of 10 straight.

Dayton gets their first home win over a Top 10 opponent at UD Arena since February 18, 1984 when the Flyers defeated #3 DePaul, 72-71 on Ed Young's shot at the buzzer.

The game started close as Pitt's Sam Young and Huelsman exchanged dunks to tie the game at 2-2. Huelsman put Dayton ahead, 4-2 by making two free throws but DeJuan Blair answered with a jumper to tie the game at 4-4. Roberts scored his first points of the game with a layup but Keith Benjamin's three put the Panthers up, 7-6 with 16:24 left in the first half.

The Flyers and Panthers continued to go back and forth as Johnson and Pittsburgh's Gilbert Brown each threw down a slam to as Pitt led 9-8. Chris Wright's two free throws gave UD a 10-9 lead. Tyrell Biggs came back for Pittsburgh and scored inside to put them up, 11-10. London Warren's three-point allowed UD to reclaim the lead, 13-11 with 13:08 remaining in the half. Charles Little made two free throws to extend the lead to 15-11.

The Panthers responded by scoring seven straight points. Ronald Ramon started it by making two foul shots, Levance Fields knocked down a three-pointer and Blair's dunk gave Pitt an 18-15 with 10:15 left until halftime.

Roberts answered with a jumper to cut the deficit to one, 18-17. On Pitt's next possession, Fields missed a three and Devin Searcy grabbed the miss and Blair was called for his second foul and went to the Panther bench for the rest of the first half. The Flyers took full advantage of it.

Johnson made one of two free throws to tie the game at 18-18; Huelsman scored inside to put UD back in front, 20-18. After a three-point play by Young put Pitt on top, Little was fouled and made both free throws to give Dayton a 22-21 lead with 7:33 left in the first half.

Wright made two more free throws and Young was fouled for Pitt, made one of two foul shots and UD led, 24-22. B-Rob started to get rolling. He knocked down a three-pointer and then a jumper to give the Flyers a 29-22 lead. After back-to-back scores Pitt, Roberts struck again. This time he made a layup and then a jumper to lead 33-26. He then got fouled on a three-point attempt and made all three foul shots to increase UD's lead to 36-26 with just over three minutes remaining until halftime. The Panthers cut the lead 42-33 with 12 seconds left, but B-Rob hit a trey, sending the crowd at UD Arena into a frenzy as the first half ended, giving the Dayton Flyers at 45-33 halftime lead.

Johnson started the second half for Dayton with a slam to increase their lead to 47-33. Fields stole the ball from Jimmy Binnie, made a layup, got fouled by Roberts, but missed the free throw to cut the Flyer lead back to 12. Blair stole the ball from Huelsman but Ramon missed the jumper. Johnson got the rebound and Blair was called for his third foul. Huelsman missed a jumper at the other end but Johnson grabbed the miss and scored to put the Flyers up, 49-35 with 18:34 to play. It forced Pittsburgh to call a timeout.

Fields knocked down a trey right out of a timeout to trim UD's lead to 49-38, but Huelsman scored inside to build the Flyer lead to 51-38. Blair followed a miss at the other end for Pitt and scored as Dayton led 51-40 with 16:27 left. That would be as close as Pitt would get.

At the other end, Blair picked up his fourth foul and went to the bench. Johnson made a layup to increase the Flyer lead to 53-40. The Panthers lost Levance Fields at 15:45 mark due to an ankle injury after he missed a jumper and did not return.

Little got into the act for Dayton by scoring four straight points to increase their lead to 57-40, forcing Pitt coach Jamie Dixon to call another timeout. Keith Benjamin responded with four consecutive points to cut the Flyer lead to 57-44, but Roberts halted any comeback efforts with a three-pointer. After a technical foul was called on the Panther bench, B-Rob made one of two free throws to build Dayton's lead to 61-44 with 9:59 remaining in the contest.

Huelsman scored to increase their lead to 63-46 and Roberts knocked down another trey to make it a 66-46 Flyer lead. Huelsman added a jumper to build the lead to 22 points, 68-46 with 7:39 left to go. B-Rob hit a three-pointer to give the Flyers a 71-48 lead. Johnson added a layup and Andres Sandoval add two free throws to extend UD's lead to 75-50. Binnie scored his first points of the game with a three-pointer and Roberts made two free throws to give Dayton its biggest lead of the night, 80-50 with 4:19 to play.

Brian Roberts scored 31 points on 10-17 shooting, 5-8 from three-point range and 6-7 from the foul line. Marcus Johnson added 15 points and 11 rebounds. He made 6-10 shots. Kurt Huelsman had 12 points and eight rebounds on 5-9 shooting from the field. Charles Little scored eight points off the bench and grabbed five boards. Chris Wright had four points, all free throws, in his first game since December 19th. The Flyers shot 52% from the floor, including a red-hot 59% in the first half. They also outrebounded the Panthers 41-35.

Sam Young led Pittsburgh with 15 points on 5-17 shooting, and also grabbed a team-high seven rebounds. Levance Fields added 13 points before leaving the game with a hurt ankle at the 15:45 mark of the second half. DeJuan Blair had eight points and six rebounds in only 18 minutes because of foul trouble. The Panthers shot 30% from the floor, including 3-25 from three-point range.

Dayton goes back to work January 2nd when they host Akron at the UD Arena.

by John Tisdell