Olivia Leung Scores 17 and Jayda Johnson Adds 15 Off the Bench as Dayton Beats Penn State 77-71

DAYTON, Ohio. Penn State could not miss from 3 in the first quarter. Dayton did not care. The Flyers took the lead for good late in the second quarter, survived a pair of Big Ten shooters having career nights, and beat the Lady Lions 77-71 on Monday, Nov. 9, at UD Arena for their first win of the season.

Junior Olivia Leung led Dayton with 17 points. Senior Jayda Johnson gave the Flyers a jolt off the bench with 15 points in just 14 minutes, and junior Molly O'Riordan hit the biggest shot of the night, a 3 with 55 seconds left that pushed the lead back to seven.

Here is the official box score (opens in a new tab), Dayton's recap (opens in a new tab) and Penn State's recap (opens in a new tab).

Penn State starts hot

On retro throwback night, it was the visitors who looked comfortable early. Penn State made five of its first six 3-point attempts and led 21-16 after one quarter. Junior Devyn Quigley hit three 3s in the opening frame, and Petra Bozan added two more. Dayton stayed close mostly because Johnson attacked the paint, scoring on back to back layups midway through the quarter, and O'Riordan answered one Penn State 3 with one of her own.

The Flyers did not commit their first foul until 5:47 remained in the second quarter. That discipline mattered, because Penn State did not get to the free throw line at all until 2:26 remained in the third.

The second quarter swing

Dayton flipped the game in the second quarter by winning it 21-8. Johnson hit a catch and shoot 3 early in the period, Sophie Swanson tied it at 23 with a finish over a defender, and Fatima Ibrahim's layup in transition gave the Flyers their first lead since 3-0. Swanson followed with another layup, and freshman Milee Smith pushed the run to six straight points.

M.G. Talle hit a jumper inside the arc, Swanson converted an old fashioned three-point play, and Johnson's two free throws before halftime gave Dayton a 37-29 edge. Penn State went 0 for 3 from deep and 4 of 17 overall in the period after its hot start, and scored only eight points in the quarter. Dayton, meanwhile, went 6 of 9 at the free throw line in the second quarter alone.

Bozan and Quigley keep coming

Any thought that Dayton would cruise disappeared in the third quarter. Ibrahim opened the half with a layup for a 39-29 lead, the Flyers' biggest of the night at 10, and Smith and Swanson extended it with a jumper and a 3. Penn State responded the way it started, from deep. Bozan hit three 3s in the period and back to back triples forced a Dayton timeout with the lead down to 44-40.

Leung settled things out of the timeout with a 3 and later beat her defender to the rim. Quigley kept Penn State close with a steal and a score late in the quarter, and the Lady Lions trailed only 53-50 going into the fourth.

Bozan finished with a career high 27 points on 10 of 11 shooting, including 5 of 6 from 3. Quigley added a career high 23 points, 18 of them on six 3s. The two combined for 50 of Penn State's 71 points. Skylar Durley added 10 points, and Cristen Carter grabbed eight rebounds. As a team, the Lady Lions shot 52.4 percent from 3 and 42.9 percent overall.

Dayton closes it out

The Flyers answered every Penn State push in the fourth quarter. Leung opened the period with a jumper off a turnover. Johnson hit a 3 for a six-point lead with 8:01 left. O'Riordan hit a jumper, then a free throw, to keep the cushion at five or more.

Penn State made its last real charge in the final two minutes. Quigley's 3 with 1:59 left cut it to 67-65. Talle answered with a putback layup off a Leung miss with 1:29 left, and after a Penn State turnover and a Dayton timeout, O'Riordan buried a 3 with 55 seconds left for a 72-65 lead.

The Lady Lions still had one more run in them. Bozan scored quickly, O'Riordan split two free throws, and Quigley hit another 3 with 44 seconds left to make it 73-70. Swanson then turned it over, and Penn State had the ball down three with 26 seconds to go.

That is when the game turned on a detail. Penn State could not inbound the ball and was called for a five-second violation. Talle was fouled right after Dayton got it in and made both free throws for a 75-70 lead with 25 seconds left. Quigley made a free throw, and Swanson made two more to seal it.

How Dayton won it

On paper, Penn State did more of the things that usually win games. It made 11 3s to Dayton's seven and shot well all night. Dayton won it in three other places.

First, the free throw line. The Flyers drew 19 fouls and committed only 11. They went 20 of 28 at the line, while Penn State was 6 of 9. That is a 14 point margin in a six point game.

Second, the glass. Dayton outrebounded Penn State 37-30 and collected 10 offensive rebounds. Every Flyer who played grabbed at least three rebounds, according to Dayton.

Third, the bench, and the late-game execution. Dayton shot 6 of 9 from the field and 10 of 13 from the line in the fourth quarter, and it turned Penn State's 16 turnovers into 19 points, compared with 11 points for the Lady Lions off Dayton's mistakes. Then there was the bench. Johnson was 5 of 6 from the field and 2 of 3 from 3 in only 14 minutes. O'Riordan added 10 points, including 2 of 4 from deep. McLeod chipped in two free throws. Dayton's reserves outscored Penn State's 27-4.

Leung was efficient as the go-to option, going 5 for 12 with two 3s and 5 of 6 free throws to go with four rebounds and three assists. Swanson added 13 points and three steals. Talle scored nine, including the two biggest free throws of the night, and tied Ibrahim for the team lead with six rebounds. Four Flyers scored in double figures.

Why it matters

This was the kind of win Dayton could not quite get four nights earlier, when it blew an 11-point fourth-quarter lead against Illinois State and lost in overtime. This time the Flyers led for the final 25 minutes and made their free throws when Penn State fouled.

Beating a Big Ten opponent at home is a nice line on a resume, even with Penn State now 0-3 and still looking for its first win. The Lady Lions shot the ball well enough to win most nights. Dayton simply made more of the hustle plays, from offensive rebounds to drawn fouls, and it got contributions from all eight players who checked in. More important for Dayton, it showed depth. The opener leaned on Ibrahim, Leung, Swanson and Smith for big minutes. This one spread the load, with no Flyer playing more than 37 minutes.

Dayton improved to 1-1 before 1,653 fans. The Flyers host Western Michigan on Sunday, Nov. 15, at 1 p.m. at UD Arena for military appreciation night.

Catch up on Dayton's overtime loss to Illinois State in the opener. On the men's side, read about Siena's upset of the Dayton men and the Flyers' overtime loss to Northern Illinois. For everything Flyers, visit our Dayton team page.

Sources: official box score, Dayton Athletics and Penn State Athletics.

Photo: Dayton Athletics