2011 Atlantic 10 Basketball Tournament: A-10 Quarterfinals

Flyers hot early then hang on at the end - (9) Dayton 68, (1) Xavier 67

Despite winning the last five Atlantic 10 regular season titles the Xavier Musketeers haven't enjoyed the same level of success in the conference tournament, with 2006 being the last year in which they won it. That victory came with the tournament being played in their hometown of Cincinnati, and thanks to rival Dayton the Musketeers yet again leave Atlantic City without the trophy.

Dayton knocked down eight of their first 11 three-pointers, jumping out to a lead as large as seventeen points before needing a pair of Luke Fabrizius free throws with 5.6 seconds remaining to win 68-67. Chris Wright led four Flyers in double figures with 15 points and Chris Johnson posted a double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds. Next up for Dayton is 12th-seed Saint Joseph's, who knocked off Duquesne in the second half of the afternoon doubleheader.

Tu Holloway led Xavier, who is a surefire at-large selection for next week's NCAA Tournament, with 23 points and five assists with 15 of those points coming after the intermission. Holloway had a chance to win the game at the buzzer but his running three-point attempt was off to the left. The Musketeers did well to make a game of it and even lead late but other than Dayton's hot start offensively they have no one to blame but themselves.

Dayton scored the first nine points of the game with a Paul Williams' three being the first basket of the game. But instead of a Holloway three with 16:10 to go being a step in the right direction, it did nothing to slow down the Flyers. Dayton went on a 12-2 run over the next four minutes, scoring twelve unanswered before Jeff Robinson's layup made the score 21-5. Nine of the 12 points came via three pointers with Williams knocking down two and Luke Fabrizius one.

The Musketeers would eventually cut the lead down to seven points on a Mark Lyons layup with 8:09 left in the half, but Dayton pushed their lead back up to 12 with five unanswered points. A Juwan Staten jumper with 11 seconds left in the half gave Dayton a 36-27 lead at the break, and they seemed to be in control of the flow of the contest as well. That would continue in the second half as the Musketeers cut the deficit to as low as nine points, only to have Dayton put together a 13-5 run with another Williams three making the score 54-37 with 12:25 to go.

But that's when the Musketeers finally woke up, going on a 16-5 run of their own to cut their deficit to six by the under-8 medial timeout. Baskets from Jamel McLean and Kenny Frease made it a two-point game with 6:58 to go, and three consecutive points from Chris Wright pushed the lead out to 62-57 about 40 seconds later. But the Flyers could only hold off the regular season champs for so long as Xavier tied the game at 64 on a Holloway layup with 2:45 to go.

Josh Benson answered with a basket with 1:24 to go, giving the Flyers a two-point lead but it wouldn't last long as the A-10 Player of the Year answered with a phenomenal three-point play to make the score 67-66 Musketeers with 23.9 seconds to go. Chris Johnson missed a shot in the final seconds but Williams was able to grab the offensive board while Xavier's Mark Lyons was called for a loose-ball foul. Fabrizius was clutch at the charity stripe, and one Holloway miss later they had their first win over Xavier away from the city of Dayton since 1981.

2011 Atlantic 10 Conference Basketball Tournament - Quarterfinal Recap

Dayton Knocks Off Top-Seed Xavier