Iowa Defeats Dayton in First Round NIT Action, to Play Oregon Sunday

The Dayton Flyers came into Carver Hawkeye Arena with the higher record and the higher seed Tuesday night, but the way Carver was rocking, there was no way they were leaving with a victory.

Aaron White, with 25 points, led a trio of Iowa forwards that dominated inside, leading the Iowa Hawkeyes to a 84 to 75 victory over the Dayton Flyers.

White, along with forwards Melsahn Basabe and Zach McCabe, Iowa's front court scored 60 points and collected 24 rebounds on the night, almost as much as Dayton's team totals in both categories. Although Dayton, to its credit, kept things close, Iowa kept exploiting the Flyers weakness on the inside, and pulled away at the end.

The effort was cheered on my a capacity crowd that came to see Iowa in its first post season game since 2006, and it's first post season win since 2003. Partially due to this post season draught, the crowd was twice as large as any other NIT game.

Iowa will face a steeper test in Oregon on Sunday at 4 p.m. on ESPNU. The Ducks were not selected for the NCAA Tournament despite winning 22 games on the year and 13 games in PAC-12 conference play.