Jan. 2, 2009

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TOLEDO, Ohio - A season high 21-point effort from junior Marcus Johnson helped the Dayton Flyers pick up a 77-63 road victory over the Toledo Rockets.

Dayton is 13-1 overall for the second consecutive season thanks in part a balanced scoring attack. Juniors Rob Lowery scored 13; London Warren added 11 points and eight assists and Kurt Huelsman recorded six points and seven rebounds.

In fact Warren, for the first time in his UD career, did not commit a turnover. The two Flyer point guards of Warren and Lowery combined for 24 points, six rebounds, 11 assists and three steals.

Johnson scored in double-figures for the fourth consecutive contest as the Flyers extended its winning streak to five. UD's bench out-scored Toledo's 24-4 as the Flyers continued to wear down its opponents.

On the defensive end, Dayton forced 18 Toledo turnovers with 15 of them coming in the first half. The Rockets shot 46 percent from the field, the best against UD through 14 contests this season.

It was a back-and-forth first half that broke Dayton's way late. The Flyers led 39-30 led by eight points from Johnson and six apiece from Devin Searcy, Lowery and Warren.

UD went on a 9-0 run to open things up late thanks to four points from Johnson, a three from Lowery and a putback by Charles Little. Johnson then added an alley-oop slam to cap the first half scoring and bring a crowd of mostly Flyer fans to its feet.

The Flyers then opened up the second half on a 6-0 run with buckets by Warren, Little and Huelsman to extend their lead to 15.

But Toledo came back with an 8-0 run of its own and cut the Flyer lead to 47-42 with 13:35 to play. Consecutive three-pointers from Johnson stopped the run and pushed the UD lead back to 11.

Both teams would again trade baskets before Lowery had a steal and a layup to push the UD advantage to 55-47 with nine minutes to play. Johnson added a layup and a three from the corner to push the Flyer lead back to 11.

After a Toledo bucket, Chris Wright sank a three from the top of the key to keep the lead in double-digits. Wright picked up his fourth foul with 6:14 to play forcing UD to go with a smaller lineup.

The quicker lineup allowed Dayton to spread the floor and come up with key buckets. Lowery tallied a three-pointer to push the Flyer lead to 68-55 with less than four minutes to play. UD converted enough free throws down the stretch to hold off the Rockets and pick up the W.

Little recorded eight points, Searcy finished with six and Chris Johnson chipped in with five points and seven boards.

Johnson shot 8-of-12 from the field and hit four three-pointers. Dayton as a team shot 50 percent from the field, 42 percent from three-point range and held a 35-32 edge in rebounding.

Dayton returns to UD Arena to face the Miami Redhawks on Tuesday at 7 p.m. ET.