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UD women fall short in bid to upset St. Bonaventure

After dominating early, Flyers can’t quite finish the job, losing 56-55.

Dayton's Andrea Hoover puts up a shot past Chelsea Bowker of No. 25 St. Bonaventure on Saturday at UD Arena. Hoover had eight points, but the Flyers fell 56-55.

ENLARGE PHOTO

By Jeff Ermann, Contributing Writer 1:52 AM Sunday, February 12, 2012

Dayton — Fifteen times this season, the Dayton women’s basketball team had led its opponent at halftime. And all 15 times, the Flyers had gone on to win. But Saturday against No. 25 St. Bonaventure, that streak ended by the narrowest of margins.

Dayton exploded out of the gate and appeared poised to pull off a major, NCAA tournament-resume-boosting victory but couldn’t maintain its momentum and fell victim to a late scoring drought in a painful 56-55 loss at UD Arena.

Dayton, which has reached the NCAA tournament in each of the past two years — the only appearances in program history — may yet make it again. But with a win against the Bonnies (24-2 overall, 11-0 Atlantic 10), the Flyers may have officially punched their ticket, and certainly would’ve boosted their potential seeding.

That’s what made it a tough blow for Dayton, which led for most of the afternoon and, amazingly, never trailed by more than a point. Forward Megan Van Tatenhove’s tough, spinning layup put the Bonnies on top in the waning moments, and UD missed a couple of shots in the final three seconds.

“She made a tough shot,” said Dayton senior guard Elle Queen.

Dayton dominated early, running out to a 19-4 lead and holding St. Bonaventure without a field goal for the first seven minutes. But the Bonnies, a hard-nosed bunch that prefers to slow the game and force opponents to grind it out in the half court, did exactly that. Dayton, the A-10’s highest-scoring team, was limited to nine baskets in the second half, missed 13 of 16 3-pointers and scored six points in the final five minutes.

“You’ve got to give a lot of credit to St. Bonaventure. They’re 24-2 for a reason. I don’t think we shot the ball well, and at the end of the day, that was the biggest difference,” said Dayton coach Jim Jabir.

Still, the Flyers had a few chances to win. After a running shot by Queen missed the mark, they called a timeout and eventually got the ball to Justine Raterman (11 points, team-high 12 rebounds), whose 3-pointer fell just short.

“She normally hits that shot in her sleep,” Jabir said.

The Flyers spoke in the locker room afterward about quickly moving on. They’ve got four games left before the Atlantic 10 tournament. A senior-laden crew that fell one win short of the school’s first A-10 crown last year, they want to finish strong.

“We’re looking to make some noise. (The A-10 championship’s) been our goal. We’re playing great at the right time,” Raterman said.

Jabir said that while it would have been a big win for their NCAA standing, he told his team after the game not to dwell on it.

“I like our team a lot,” he said. “I told them I’ve already forgotten about it.”

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