The University of Alabama men’s basketball team dropped its 2015-16 road opener, 80-48, against the Dayton Flyers on Tuesday afternoon at UD Arena. The Crimson Tide fell to 1-1 on the season while Dayton improved to 2-0.

“Their defense deserves a lot of credit,” head coach Avery Johnson said. “We had tough shots every trip down the court, and we had a difficult time scoring. We started to have silly turnovers and were having a hard time getting shots at the basket. We struggled with unforced errors. Give Dayton credit, they capitalized off of those. We knew this would be a tough environment to play in. Dayton is a veteran, well-oiled machine, and we ran into the buzzsaw today.”

It was a back-and-forth game early on, as the Tide’s junior forward Jimmie Taylor opened the scoring on a put back off of an offensive rebound. Both teams struggled in the opening minutes, as the Flyers held a 6-4 advantage at the first media timeout.

Senior guard Retin Obasohan evened the game at 16-16 after a basket following excellent ball movement by the Alabama offense, and Norris gave the Tide the lead at 18-16 when he grabbed a loose ball kept alive by Obasohan and converted a layup with exactly 10 minutes remaining in the first half.

The Flyers, however, began to heat up from there, putting together a quick 10-0 run to take the lead for good. That scoring run would eventually stretch to a 17-4 spurt, giving Dayton their first double-digit lead at 33-22. Over the course of the final 9:28 of the first half, the Flyers outscored Alabama 22-6 to open up a 40-24 lead going into the locker room.

Dayton was a perfect 9-for-9 from the foul line in the half and shot 41 percent (13-of-32) from field, draining five from beyond the arc. Meanwhile, the Tide committed 10 turnovers and shot just 30 percent (9-of-30) from the floor.

Alabama could not gain any traction in the second half, making only eight field goals in the second half while turning the ball over 10 more times.

For the game, the Flyers made 46.7 percent (28-60) of their shots, which included 9-of-21 from behind the arc. Dayton also hauled in 47 rebounds. The Tide was 29.8 percent (17-57) overall and recorded 34 rebounds.

The loss was the largest margin of defeat since a 105-71 setback against Ole Miss on March 3, 2001.

Next up, Alabama returns home for a matchup with the Louisiana-Lafayette Ragin’ Cajuns in Coleman Coliseum on Friday, Nov. 20. Tip-off is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. CT.

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