The Adobe Flash Player is required to view this multimedia interactive. Get it here.

Flyers finally find shooting touch in UMass blowout

UD makes 13-of-28  3-pointers to score most points under 7th-year coach Brian Gregory.

University of Dayton guard Rob Lowery had 13 points, two rebounds and five assists in the Flyers'
96-68 victory over Massachusetts on Saturday, Feb. 27.

Contributed photo by Erik Schelkun University of Dayton guard Rob Lowery had 13 points, two rebounds and five assists in the Flyers' 96-68 victory over Massachusetts on Saturday, Feb. 27.

ENLARGE PHOTO

By Doug Harris, Staff Writer Updated 12:46 AM Sunday, February 28, 2010

DAYTON — A whistle blew to stop play for a foul as Rob Lowery was letting a 3-pointer go. Anguished that his shot wouldn’t count, the University of Dayton senior point guard yelled as the ball was hitting nylon, “That’s cash money.”

Lowery, though, didn’t need to be so chagrined about the missed opportunity from the arc. He and his teammates ended up having plenty of fun from behind that blue half-circle.

The UD men’s basketball team made 13-of-28 from long range and put six players in double figures while carving up Massachusetts 96-68 before a sellout crowd of 13,435 Saturday, Feb. 27.

The Flyers reached the highest point total in seven years under coach Brian Gregory, just three days after shooting a season-low 26 percent in a 49-41 loss to 20th-ranked Temple.

UD missed 15 shots from point-blank range against Temple and would have had trouble putting the ball in a smokestack while standing close enough to choke on the fumes.

“We just talked about, if you’re going to shoot it, let’s shoot it with confidence, shoot it being aggressive,” Gregory said. “As long as we were aggressive and moved the ball, let’s go do it.”

Mickey Perry made 5-of-7 3s to finish with 15 points against UMass, while Lowery made 3-of-5 for 13 points. Chris Wright added 14, Marcus Johnson and Chris Johnson 11 each and Devin Searcy 10 for the Flyers (19-9, 8-6 Atlantic 10).

UMass (10-18, 4-10) has the second-leading scorer in the league in Ricky Harris, but he was held to nine points (10 below his average) on 3-for-15 shooting.

“They’re obviously a very good team,” UMass coach Derek Kellogg said. “The thing we were going to give up was we were going to pack it in and make them make 3s over us because of the way they shot it the last few games. But those were on the road, and the home crowd helped them.

“They looked like an NCAA tournament team tonight — one that a lot of teams wouldn’t want to play.”

Share this article