Flyers cruise past Panthers with ease
The No. 25 Dayton Flyers took care of business and more against the Eastern women’s basketball team Sunday afternoon with a 63-point win.
Five Flyers scored in double figures including freshman center Jodie Cornelie, who came off the bench to score a game-high 21 points.
The tone was set from the start of the game when the Panthers saw a couple shots go in and out of the basket, while Dayton scored point after point on the other end of the floor.
The Flyers finished the game shooting 67 percent from the field, while Eastern couldn’t find the bottom of the net — shooting 24 percent from the field and being outscored 105-42.
“It seemed like everything we had the rim kicked out and everything (Dayton) had got sucked in (to the basket),” Eastern head coach Lee Buchanan said.
It was a dominant performance by the nationally ranked Dayton team, which had four of its five starters score 10 or more points.
Not one Panther player scored in double figures as senior forward Sydney Mitchell came off the bench to get the closest — scoring nine points on 3-of-9 shooting.
Eastern junior guard Jordyne Crunk had a big game off the bench, scoring eight points on 3-of-3 shooting.
Crunk sank two three pointers.
“We probably should’ve gotten Jordyne more shots,” Buchanan said. “She’s been shooting it well, especially from the three-point line.”
Eastern’s two leading scorers this season struggled. Seniors Ta’Kenya Nixon and Mariah King combined to score 13 points on 5-of-24 shooting.
“Teams are going to key on them,” Buchanan said. “I thought Mariah got hammered quite a bit inside, early, but it didn’t get called.”
Buchanan said the basket wasn’t friendly to Nixon in the game after her first few shots looked good, but didn’t go in.
The game was fully in the Flyers’ hands by halftime, leading 56-21 going into the locker room.
Dayton controlled the game throughout by dominating on the boards, dishing out a lot of assists, forcing turnovers and scoring on fast breaks.
“They really push it hard,” Buchanan said. “They were ready to go and hitting on all cylinders.”
The Flyers came into the game averaging 84 points per game and score a lot of the points in transition and off of turnovers.
The Flyers scored 60 points in the paint, many that came from the 34 fast break points. Also, Dayton turned 20 Eastern turnovers into 28 points.
Dayton is one of the highest ranked teams, nationally, the Panthers have played in recent years. The Panthers played Ohio State, a team then rated in the top five nationally, three years ago.
The Panthers come home for their next game, which is Thursday against Indiana-Purdue-Indianapolis.
Alex McNamee can be reached at 581-2812 or admcnamee@eiu.edu.