WILMINGTON, North Carolina – Dayton used a 16-2 run early in the second half to pull away from the UNCW men's basketball team, 80-61, in the Second Round of the National Invitation Tournament (NIT) on Saturday night before a sold-out Trask Coliseum.

The Flyers (25-11), the No. 2 seed in the Winston-Salem Region, advance to play the winner of Sunday's Wake Forest-Illinois State contest in the NIT Quarterfinals next week.

The Seahawks (27-7) conclude their season after winning the Coastal Athletic Association regular season title and recording the second-best win total in program history (27) for the third time in the last five seasons.

Redshirt junior Patrick Wessler paced the host team with 12 points on 6-of-10 shooting and was joined in double figures by seniors Madison Durr and Noah Ross, who both had 10.

Junior De'Shayne Montgomery led all scorers with 20 points while sophomores Amael L'Etang and Bryce Heard added 11 and 10, respectively.

UNCW raced out to a 24-14 lead, highlighted by the game's first seven points, in the first men's basketball postseason game in Trask Coliseum history.

Dayton then rattled off scoring spurts of five, six and five points to take its first lead of the game, 30-28, on a Javon Bennett layup with 5:45 before halftime.

The teams traded the advantage four times before the Flyers scored the final five points of the half to enter the break ahead 37-33.

Dayton rattled off its game-changing run after Ross started the second half with a fastbreak layup, including 11 unanswered to go up 53-37 with 13:02 left. 

The Seahawks tripped the deficit to 13, 63-50, with 7:12 left, but the Flyers put the game to bed with five straight points, all free throws, for their largest lead of the game, 68-50, with 5:59 to play.

Ross and fellow four-year senior Nolan Hodge concluded their Seahawk careers tied with former teammate Khamari McGriff for the most wins in school history (99).