Dayton uses big first half to beat North Carolina in NIT final
The Dayton Flyers celebrate defeating the North Carolina Tar Heels during the 2010 NIT Championship Game at Madison Square Garden. (April 1, 2010) Credit: Getty Images
London Warren jumped into the arms of Kurt Huelsman and pumped his fist. Devin Searcy held up his championship T-shirt and nodded his head toward the sea of red in the Dayton cheering sections.
And then there was Chris Johnson, who simply held his MVP trophy high above his head and smiled.
The Flyers were just too quick, too athletic and too precise - especially in the first half - to be contained. And North Carolina found that out the hard way.
Behind 20 points from Marcus Johnson and 14 each from Chris Johnson and Chris Wright, No. 3 seed Dayton beat the fourth-seeded Tar Heels, 79-68, last night in the NIT final before a crowd of 9,827 at Madison Square Garden.
It's Dayton's third NIT title and first since 1968. Dayton's 22 NIT appearances are second only to St. John's 27.
Dayton (25-12) took a 45-32 halftime lead, courtesy of 58.1 percent shooting and a 17-4 run in the final 8:11 of the half. But defending national champion North Carolina (20-17) went on an 11-1 run to cut its deficit to 46-43.
Dayton, which made 11 three-pointers in the game, allowed UNC to hang around for much of the second half. That is, until Warren fed Chris Johnson - who scored nine points in the final 3:16 - for a fast-break layup that made it 75-68 with less than a minute to go.
"He has always played with tremendous energy and he's really starting to become a great basketball player," Dayton coach Brian Gregory said of Johnson. "He has a great understanding for the game and he's not afraid to take a big shot."
Will Graves almost single-handedly rallied UNC, scoring 19 of his 25 points in the second half. He was 5-for-9 on three-pointers.
"We just didn't finish the job,'' Tar Heels coach Roy Williams said. "Have to congratulate Dayton . . . We made a nice run early in the second half and just could never get over the hump.''
In the semifinals Tuesday night, North Carolina outrebounded Rhode Island 60-45 - its highest rebounding total this season and its most since November 2005. But last night the Tar Heels were outrebounded 41-34 and Dayton outhustled the Tar Heels 17-8 on second-chance points.
"We had to keep our poise," said Warren, who had seven assists, two points and two steals. "That was our goal all season. And we've done a better job toward the end of the season of finishing games. North Carolina's a good team, so we knew they were going to make a run. We just had to withstand it, and we did a good job of that."
