La Salle finds edge against Dayton

THESE ARE the kind of wins La Salle must have on the resume come March, when every young man's fancy turns to love, the RPI and Joe Lunardi's first four in/first four out.

La Salle took on Dayton Wednesday night and emerged with a tense, chippy and delightful 72-70 win over the Flyers. It was the Explorers' (12-4, 2-1 Atlantic 10) first victory over Dayton in 5 years.

"It's great to get any win in the Atlantic 10," said senior Ramon Galloway, who led all scorers with 18 points. "Coach always preaches how last year one game separated the fourth-place team from the [eighth-place] team. We haven't beaten Dayton in a few years and it felt to good to beat them. It's just like when we beat Villanova" after 10 consecutive losses.

The victory could have large implications in about 8 weeks as long as the Explorers hold course and this talented Dayton (10-7, 0-3) team turns things around. The Flyers' three conference losses have been to three of the league's better teams. (Virginia Commonwealth and Butler were the others.) They also own a win at Alabama.

"Dayton's a terrific team," La Salle coach John Giannini said. "Their schedule is brutal starting out the conference. I think they're going to end up being one of the better teams in the A-10."

Galloway provided the footage for the highlight reels in the first half with three of La Salle's four dunks within 91 seconds, and Jerrell Wright's consecutive three-point plays late in crunch time gave the Explorers a crucial boost down the stretch.

"I thought our first-half stretch of turnovers changed the course of the game," Dayton coach Archie Miller said. "Galloway had some of the greatest highlight dunks this arena has ever seen. And he did it back-to-back-to-back. Our defensive field-goal percentage numbers are skewed because we can't guard a breakaway dunk."

The Explorers forced the Flyers into 24 turnovers. Afterward, Giannini appeared to quietly point out to Tyreek Duren (six steals) that the Explorers turned those two dozen miscues into 26 points. Sam Mills also helped with the stifling defense.

There were eight ties and 21 lead changes. Duren had a steal and a layup to give the Explorers a four-point lead with under a minute and La Salle held on as Dayton's Kevin Dillard missed a difficult three-point attempt at the buzzer. Dillard, one of the league's best guards, was held scoreless in the first half but hit four threes after intermission to finish with 12 points.

It's mid-January and not many folks at 20th and Olney care that the Explorers are 40th in the latest RPI rankings. But for a team that hasn't been to the NCAAs since 1992, a win over Dayton was just the latest little hurdle. A couple more are on the immediate horizon with a visit to Xavier on Saturday and a home game with Butler next Wednesday.

"Dayton and probably Temple are the only teams we haven't beaten in a while," Giannini said. "We think we're a good team. We beat a lot of good teams. We think we should win . . . We're thrilled with any A-10 win we get, and that was a very good team we beat tonight."

Tyreek Duren, a junior, became the 51st Explorer to reach 1,000 career points with a bucket in the first half . . . Jerrell Wright shot a season-best 7-for-10 from the field. He's 18-for-27 (66.7 percent) over the last three games. Coach John Giannini wishes he'd get "a little meaner" when rebounding . . . The last time La Salle played on the same day the Eagles hired a new coach was in 1991 when Buddy Ryan was ousted and Rich Kotite promoted. The Doug Overton/Randy Woods-led Explorers lost at Iona that night, 77-74.