Flyers Roll in First Half, Get Sloppy in Second
by William Hans

     Most informed college basketball fans will remember the name of Harold Arceneaux.  He was the Weber State player who scored 36 points to help his team shock North Carolina in the 1999 NCAA Tournament.  Monday night he led the Coaches vs. Cancer All-stars into the UD Arena to play the Dayton Flyers.

    While Arceneaux did lead the C vs. C with 13 points the real story came from Dayton's first half dominance.  In the first half, Mark Jones led the Flyers with 13 points on 5 of 8 shooting including 3 of 5 from 3.  Keith Waleskowski had a double-double in the first half with 11 points and 13 rebounds.  As a team the Flyers shot 21-33 for 64% and 7-15 behind the 3-point line for 47%.  To round out the first half scoring, Monty Scott had 7.  Sean Finn had 6.  Ramod Marshall had 7.  Warren Williams had 6, and James Cripe had 4 points, 2 rebounds, 1 assist and 1 block in just 7 minutes of play.  The half-time score was Dayton 54, Coaches vs. Cancer 23.
   
    Good defense is nothing new to the Flyers, but neither is letting down in the second half.  With Dayton leading by 31 at the half, the outcome of the game was all but decided.  Harold Arceneaux scored 9 of his 13 in the second half as C. vs. C. tried to make up the deficit.  The Flyers defense looked a little tired and had a hard time keeping this team of ex-college stars from making the game interesting.  Dayton's offense looked almost as tired as the defense but in the Flyers' defense, Coach Gregory was trying a lot of different combinations for different situations, running younger player in with the veterans to see what would work.

    My pick for Monday night's Player of the Game: Keith Waleskowski who finished with 18 points and 19 boards.

    All in all it was a good exhibition game for what it was.  We found out that this team can shoot the rock.  We found out that this team can play big time defense.  We also found out that as the game goes on this team gets tired.  Coach Gregory came away with his first win as a head coach and has some positives to build on, but he has seen some things that need to be addressed for the next game.  Friday the Flyers take on an EA Sports traveling team at the Arena.