Dust Devil boys hoops stuns ROP

Staff Reports

The Dayton High boys basketball team gave a glimpse of capabality in its biggest win of the year.

Dayton performance may have even reminded the Dust Devil fans of its run last year when it went all the way to the NIAA 3A State finals. In a game that Dayton hopes will give it momentum for the rest of the season, the Dust Devils pulled out a thrilling 78-74 overtime win on Friday at Rite of Passage.

"That's a good win for us," said Dayton coach Rob Streeter, whose team improved to 3-5 in the Northern 3A. Dayton gave ROP its first league loss heading into the Rams' showdown with Manogue today.

"We're kind of looking forward to this springboarding us in the second half," Streeter said.

Dayton has been in every Northern 3A game it has played this year, with the exception of a 59-31 loss to Manogue on Wednesday. In their first meeting, Dayton lost to ROP 71-67.

"We've been right there," Streeter said. "We've had a few breakdowns. This is our breakout game. We made the plays at the end of the game when we had to. Our kids just played smart."

Dayton received a huge game from Adam Diament, who scored 32 points, and key contributions from Matt Bowman as well as Josh Aaker and Trent Wood off the bench. The Dust Devils also made 27-of-33 free throws.

The two biggest came from Aaker, who made two foul shots for his first two points of the game to give Dayton a 70-68 lead. ROP drew a shooting foul with 1.1 seconds left.

After missing the first free throw, ROP missed the second intentionally and tipped in the miss at the buzzer to force overtime. ROP jumped out in front in overtime, but Aaker came up big again. Aaker converted a three-point play to give Dayton a 76-74 lead and Bowman made two foul shots to seal the win.

Bowman, who scored 16 points, was 6-of-6 from the line. Diament was 9-of-12 from the line and Wood, who added eight points, was 4-of-4 from the line.