POSTGAME AUDIO WITH JAYLON HALL WHO HAD 19 POINTS
82 MilwaukeeĀ 7-10,6-9 Horizon
92Ā Wright St.Ā 17-4,15-3 Horizon
For the second night in a row, the Wright State men’s basketball team used its offense to pull away with a win, taking down visiting Milwaukee 92-82 on Saturday in the regular season home finale inside the Nutter Center.
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The win improved the Raiders to 17-4 overall and 15-3 in Horizon League play, matching their most League wins in program history with last season’s regular season champion squad. Wright State has two regular season games remaining, a back-to-back next weekend at Northern Kentucky. The Raiders will go into that series with a chance to tie and break their program record for most consecutive Horizon League wins, which is 10 set by the 2007-08 team.
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For the second straight night,Ā Loudon LoveĀ led the Raider offense, turning in 29 points, including 18 in the first half, on 11-of-16 shooting overall with 12 rebounds. He was 7-of-8 at the free throw line and added three assists and a block in 36 minutes of action. The 36 minutes were a season-high and one minute shy of his career-best 37 from February 2018, also against Milwaukee.
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With his 21 combined rebounds this weekend, Love moved to third all-time in Horizon League history and now sits on the cusp of 1,100 career boards at 1,096. That figure is tied for 96th-most in NCAA history.
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Jaylon HallĀ joined Love with 19 points of his own off the bench, paced by a 4-of-4 mark from three-point range.Ā Tanner HoldenĀ finished just shy of a double-double of his own wit 14 points and nine rebounds, tallying an 8-of-9 mark at the free throw stripe.Ā Trey CalvinĀ was the final double-digit scorer, turning in 13 points with a trio of three-point baskets, adding four assists and three steals.
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Grant BasileĀ added to his Horizon League-leading block total with three, and now has 34 on the year.
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Wright State used a 24-8 scoring run over six minutes midway through the first half to turn a seven-point lead into 20, extending it to 22 a few minutes later before Milwaukee used a 12-5 run of its own to close the Raider lead to 52-37 at the halftime break.
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Both sides traded baskets early in the second half, with the Raiders still holding a double-digit lead at 65-53 at the under-12 timeout. After a pair of Finke free throws, the Panthers cut the margin to six with just under nine minutes to play. Wright State answered with a quick, 7-2 run, aided by a Calvin three and a dunk from Love, to push the lead back to 11, but Milwaukee would not go away.
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The visitors pulled within six with under five minutes to play and trailed by seven with 2:41 remaining before a final blitz from the Raiders that saw Calvin hit a final three and a Hall jumper that kept Milwaukee at bay in the closing seconds.
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Wright State and Milwaukee each shot 47 percent from the floor overall (Raiders 29-of-62; Panthers 31-of-66) but the Raiders found more success from deep, connecting on 10-of-19 (53 percent) of their three-point attempts to Milwaukee’s seven makes (7-of-20, 35 percent).
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The Raiders got it done at the free throw line, going 24-of-26 from the stripe, a 92 percent rate, while Milwaukee had 17 trips to the line, hitting 13 for a 77 percent clip. Wright State won the rebound battle 44-29 and pulled down 28 defensive boards. Ā
GAME RECAP COURTESY WRIGHT STATE ATHLETICS
