Dayton Flight Week in Review: June 1st-6th
By: Austin Fletcher
With eight games left in the regular season coming into the weekend of June 4th-6th, the Dayton Flight had a golden opportunity to close the two-game lead that the Columbus Condors held over them for the fourth seed in the TBL’s Midwest Division. A full game in the standings was on the line Friday night (June 4th) as the Flight welcomed the Condors into Wilberforce Gym and played a crucial home game. This game against the Condors would make up the first leg of a back-to-back, with a game against the third place Owensboro Thoroughbreds finishing off the Dayton Flight weekend the following night (June 5th).
Friday night’s game against the Condors was a fast-paced game that lived up to the high-scoring reputation that the Flight have garnered in the league. Josh Webster and Taishaun Johnson combined for 57 points in the game for the Flight (31 and 26, respectively) but it wasn’t enough in the end to pull out the win. In a closely fought contest, the Condors snuck out a win by a final score of 135-127, much in part because of Cordaryl Ballard’s 60-point game, which included 7 made three pointers. Despite this amazing performance from Ballard, the Flight and their up-tempo offense were in the game until the end. Three-point shooting turned out to be the difference, as the Condors made 7 more threes than the Flight during the game on only 4 more attempts from behind the arc.
The Flight experienced a similar story during Saturday’s matchup against the Owensboro Thoroughbreds. Despite continuing the incredible scoring pace that the team has carried throughout the season, Dayton’s 122 points in this game were not enough to take down the third seed Thoroughbreds. Like the night before, Owensboro’s Jaiveon Eaves had a stellar performance that changed the nature of the game, scoring 54 points for the Kentucky-based franchise and shooting an efficient 70% from the field. The Flight’s scoring was there in the number of points they put up, but the normal efficiency that the team prides itself on couldn’t match that of the Thoroughbreds offense. The Flight shot 40.2% from the field (43 made field goals on 103 attempts) to Owensboro’s 55.7% (54 FG made on 97 attempts). The final score was 137-122.
As the Flight head into the last 6 games of their season, their playoff hopes still remain in reach, even though the 0-2 mark of this past weekend has made the possibility tougher than before. The Flight look to move past this tough stretch as they take on Flint United (away, June 11th at 7PM) and the Midwest Division leading Kokomo BobKats (away, June 13th at 3PM) over the course of this upcoming weekend. Defense will be the key as the Flight look to close the gap between themselves and the playoff hopefuls that make up the Midwest Division.
Check back this time next week for another Dayton Flight Week in Review article. Until then, check us out on Instagram and Twitter to stay up to date with everything Dayton Flight.
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