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UD unable to get offense going in loss

Inside defense,  2nd-half surge by Saint Joseph’s stymie UD.

By Doug Harris, Staff Writer Updated 8:25 AM Thursday, January 26, 2012

PHILADELPHIA — C.J. Aiken of Saint Joseph’s is second in the nation in blocked shots, and the long-armed, 6-foot-9 sophomore almost dares opponents to challenge him.

University of Dayton guard Paul Williams once appeared to have some room to operate in transition, but Aiken lured him in by retreating to the baseline, then sprang above the rim for one of his five rejections.

“He’s going to be a tremendous player in our conference,” UD coach Archie Miller said. “He’ll probably be the defensive player of the year. He has a chance to be an absolute home run here at Saint Joe’s — his ability to block shots, his ability to step out (on offense). He’s a game-changer.”

UD’s inside attack was almost totally thwarted by Aiken and the Hawks’ athletic frontcourt. And when they tried to respond by hoisting long-range bombs, all the Flyers succeeded in doing was chip paint from the rim.

UD shot just 35 percent from the field — 7-of-27 on 3-pointers — and lost sole possession first place in the Atlantic 10 with a 77-63 defeat before 3,781 fans here Wednesday.

Chris Johnson and Kevin Dillard each had 17 points, but UD (14-6, 4-2 A-10) didn’t get its usual contributions from center Matt Kavanaugh (six points) or backup Alex Gavrilovic (three).

Sub forward Ronald Roberts had a career-high 27 points, including his team’s final 15, and Saint Joe’s (13-8, 3-3) put up 50 points and shot 70 percent from the field in the second half.

“One difference tonight was we weren’t able to get any inside attack going. That started to give us problems,” Miller said. “We let the faucet go crazy and started giving their inside guys easy baskets. It became contagious.”

UD took a 34-27 lead early in the second half, but the offense was barely idling. The Hawks (13-8, 3-3) went on a 14-1 run to take a 53-44 edge with 11 minutes to go, then pushed the lead to 14 with the help of back-to-back 3-pointers from Aiken (14 points).

“Aiken is a great player. He’s long and athletic and can block anything if he’s in the area,” Kavanaugh said. “He skied up there for a couple that you didn’t think he’d have a chance for, but he still got them.”

Next game:

Who: Rhode Island (3-18, 0-6 Atlantic 10) at Dayton (14-6, 4-2)

When: 7 p.m. Saturday

TV: WHIO (Ch. 7)

Radio: WHIO-AM (1290), WHIO-FM (95.7)

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