• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers

Roberts, Dayton KO Louisville

Dec 8, 2007 - 11:55 PM LOUISVILLE, Kentucky (Ticker) -- Brian Roberts and Dayton kept Louisville coach Rick Pitino from a milestone.

Roberts poured in 28 points to lead the Flyers to a 70-65 upset win of the 11th-ranked Cardinals on Saturday.

In beating Louisville for the second straight season, Dayton won its sixth consecutive game and denied Pitino his 500th win as a college coach.

"Dayton played a very good basketball game, we did not," Pitino said.

The Flyers withstood a strong comeback by the Cardinals (5-2) in the second half and put the game away by burying 8-of-8 free throws in the final 46 seconds - including four by the senior guard Roberts.

"I was very pleased with the second half," Dayton coach Brian Gregory said. "We lost it there for a couple of minutes and Louisville made us lose it. We gathered our composure and really made plays during that last ten minutes. We took a step forward today as a team and some individuals took a big step forward. We just have to keep building on this."

Derrick Caracter scored 16 points and Earl Clark added 15 for Louisville, which lost for the second time in four games.

After registering a total of just 14 points in his past two games, the 6-2 Roberts finished 10-of-17 from the floor.

"He doesn't take bad shots; I think he took one bad shot today," said Gregory of Roberts. "He was very aggressive. The players around him are playing better. He's had sub-par games but the others around him stepped up and helped us win those games."

A 3-pointer by Jimmy Binner gave Dayton a 39-28 lead two minutes into the second half before the Cardinals came roaring back.

Caracter had four points and Edgar Sosa hit a 3-pointer in a 13-0 run to give Louisville its first lead at 41-39 with 11:18 to play.

Re-enter Roberts, who had been limited to two points in nearly 19 minutes after an explosive start that saw him score 14 points in the first 10:05.

Louisville had taken its last lead, 44-43, on a 3-pointer by Jerry Smith but Roberts scored four straight points to put Dayton ahead for good, 47-44, with nine minutes to play.

"We didn't want to play him the way we played him," said Pitino of Roberts. "We didn't want to back into the level of the screen. We wanted to stay on him and play him correctly, even our zone was bad tonight. The bottom line is we fed off bad shots."

Dayton led the entire first half behind the scoring of Roberts, who hit a pair of 3-pointers to give the Flyers a 17-7 bulge less than 9 1/2 minutes into the game.

Roberts followed with a basket in the lane with 9:55 to play in the half, giving him 14 points and Dayton its biggest lead of the contest at 19-7.

A pair of late 3-pointers by Andre McGahee and Terrence Little pulled the Cardinals within 34-26 at halftime.