Box Score
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DAYTON, Ohio - La Salle rallied from a 12-point deficit with 2:29 to play to cut it to three with 1:40 remaining but could not top Dayton on Saturday night at UD Arena, falling to the Flyers, 79-75.

Senior Earl Pettis led the Explorers with 19 points, 16 of which came in the second half. Junior Ramon Galloway added 18, while sophomore Sam Mills scored 17 points. The loss snaps a six-game winning streak and is the first defeat since a 70-66 loss at Delaware on December 19.

“They're awfully good,” head coach Dr. John Giannini said. “They made shots and they are hard to guard. We were not at our best early on and it reflected in the score.”

Dayton (13-5, 3-1 A-10) was the first team to solve La Salle's much improved defense, which came into the second in opponents scoring average (62.5) in the A-10. The Flyers ended up scoring the second most points against the Explorers this season.

Matt Kavanaugh was a big reason for that, scoring a career-high 23 points and grabbing nine rebounds. Luke Fabrizius added a season-high 14.

Kavanaugh scored 17 of his 23 points in the second half and made 13-of-14 foul shots. His previous career-high was 15 set earlier this season versus Wake Forest.

“Kavanaugh's a really good big man in our league,” Giannini said.

LU's perimeter defense was solid, holding leading scorer Kevin Dillard to nine points, four under his average. It marked the 13^th time in the past 15 games that La Salle has held the opponent's top scorer under his average.

The deficit reached as many as 15 points in the second half and La Salle (13-5, 2-1 A-10) trailed by 12 with 2:39 to play at 74-62. But a 12-4 run over the next 49 seconds put La Salle within striking distance. Pettis (seven points) and Galloway (six) scored every point during the run, with Galloway's long three-pointer with 1:40 to play making it 78-75.

After a La Salle timeout, the Explorers kept the Flyers off the board and a freshman D.J. Peterson steal gave La Salle the ball with 28 ticks on the clock. After another timeout, Giannini drew up a play for a potential game-tying three-pointer but the visitors were unable to knot things up. Josh Parker made a free throw with two seconds left to put the game out of reach.

“The comeback shows we're going to keep fighting no matter what,” Pettis said.

The Explorers will finish up a three-game road trip when they travel down Broad Street to visit Temple on Wednesday at 7 PM. A limited number of tickets are available through the La Salle ticket office at 215-951-1999 or tickets@lasalle.edu. Student tickets are available for $8.

Notes: La Salle fell to 12-1 when scoring 70 points and 11-2 when making eight or more three-pointers…Steve Zack pulled down a career-high eight rebounds…Sam Mills has made a three-pointer in 18 straight games.