DAYTON, Ohio (Dec. 2, 2016)-Kelley Austria scored a game-high 15 points and Alex Harris came off the bench to record a game-high 11 rebounds, eight points, a game-high four blocked shots and added two steals to help the Dayton Flyers defeat visiting Morgan State, 61-42 on Friday night at UD Arena.

Saicha Grant-Allen and Jenna Burdette each added nine points in the win which ended a four-game losing skid for Dayton, while Morgan State dropped its fifth straight.
 
Friday night's contest was pretty much a repeat of the same story for the Lady Bears so far on this young season. Morgan State would once again out shoot its opponent, yet made fewer baskets, and despite being in the game, would end up collapsing in the end.

Morgan State (1-6) would shoot 15-of-59 (25.4 percent), while Dayton shot 42.9 percent
(21-of-49) for the game. The Lady Bears did have one of their better games shooting from three-point range (6-for-15) for 40 percent, while holding the Flyers to 17.6 percent (3-of-17).

24 fouls by Morgan State allowed the Flyers to shoot 16 more free throws than Morgan State, going 16-of-24 (66.7 percent) from the free throw line. Morgan State would go to the charity line eight times and made six for 75 percent.

Dayton (3-4) scored the game's first six points, before a jumper by Braennan Farrar put the Lady Bears on the board with 4:57 to play in the opening quarter. The host Flyers would hold a 9-2 advantage before Jihayah Chavis knocked down back-to-back three-pointers to bring the Lady Bears within a point at 9-8 with 1:48 remaining. Dayton however would close out the quarter with a 6-0 run to take a 15-8 lead after one.

Morgan State trailed 17-8 early in the second period, before using a 7-2 spurt, capped off by a jumper by Farrar to make it a 19-15 game at the 5:48 mark. But a 6-0 run by Dayton would up the lead to 10 points (25-15) with 3:59 remaining. Morgan State would cut the deficit in half on a three-pointer by Tayler Miller, followed by a Jayde Duncan layup to make it a 25-20 ballgame with 1:43 to play. Dayton's Christy Macioce would hit a three-pointer to end the scoring and give the hosts a 20-28 advantage at the half.

The Lady Bears would still hang around in the third quarter, as a three-pointer by Tykyrah Williams capped off a mini 5-0 run by Morgan State and made it 29-25 contest with 6:18 left in the quarter. That's when Morgan State would once again get hit by its inability to get consistent scoring and Dayton used a 20-7 run to up its lead to 49-32. The Flyers' run, which was over a stretch of eight-and-a-half minutes, spanned across the final 6:18 of the third quarter and the first 2:16 of the fourth quarter, which Dayton scored the first five points to begin the final quarter.

The guests would cut the lead down to 13 points twice, the last coming with 2:49 (52-39) to play after a basket by Janessa Fauntroy, but that would be as close as Morgan State would get. Dayton would close out the game by scoring the next nine points to take its largest lead of the evening at 22 points (61-39). Duncan would then end the game with a three-pointer for Morgan State at the top of the key as the buzzer sounded for the game's final score.

Morgan State was led by Farrar, who finished with 11 points and tied both Chelsea Mitchell and Duncan with a team-high seven rebounds. Farrar also led the team with three assists and two steals, which both tied for game highs. Chavis finished with eight points and Duncan added seven points, including her first career three-pointer and a team-high two blocked shots.

Morgan State will be off until next Wednesday, Dec. 7, when it visits crosstown rival the University of Maryland Baltimore County for a 7 p.m. non-conference tilt at RAC Arena.