The Wright State men’s basketball team remained unbeaten in Horizon League play and won its fifth straight game overall on Saturday afternoon with a 67-53 victory over Green Bay inside the Nutter Center.
The Raiders (5-1, 3-0 HL) and Phoenix (0-7, 0-3) are back at it on Sunday afternoon as part of the Horizon’s back-to-back scheduling model. Sunday’s game is set for a 2 p.m. tipoff, and Raider fans can follow the action by tuning in to WRZX 106.5 FM or watching on ESPN3, where Chris Collins and Jim Brown will have all the play-by-play on the radio and ESPN feeds.
Saturday saw Tanner Holden and Loudon Love each finish with double-doubles to pace the Raiders, as Holden finished with a game-high 18 points and added 10 rebounds, while Love finished with a game-leading 14 rebounds and had 17 points. Jaylon Hall (12 points) and Grant Basile (11 points) also finished in double figures, with Hall filling his stat line with seven rebounds, five assists and two steals. Basile added eight rebounds of his own.
Both sides started slowly, combining for a five-minute scoreless stretch in he first half, and trading buckets before Basile’s layup with 39 seconds remaining gave Wright State a 23-21 halftime lead. The Raiders opened the second half with a three from Hall, but the game remained tight in the half’s opening minutes.
Leading by one with 12 minutes to play, Hall connected on his second three of the afternoon. Less than 30 seconds later, Tim Finke came up with a steal on the defensive end of the floor and drilled a three of his own moments later to push the advantage out to seven. A few possessions later, Hall capped a 10-2 Wright State scoring run with a steal around midcourt that he turned into a two-handed dunk and the Raiders had breathing room.
Wright State scored 14 of the 19 total points over a five-plus minute stretch from the seven-minute mark down to around two minutes to seal the win, as Love had six points during the run and Hall and Holden had four points each.
The Raiders finished the afternoon shooting 44 percent (29-of-66) and hit just 4-of-14 from three-point range, but three of those came in the second half. Defensively, Wright State held Green Bay to 38 percent shooting (23-of-60), while the visitors also only hit four three-pointers (4-of-13). Each side had only seven free throw attempts, with Wright State converting 5-of-7 (71 percent) and Green Bay hitting 3-of-7 (43 percent).
Led by Holden and Love’s 24 combined rebounds, Wright State had a huge advantage on the glass, outrebounding Green Bay 47-30. The Raiders pulled down 35 rebounds on the defensive side of the floor, and also forced the Phoenix into 11 turnovers and forced nine steals that they turned into 13 points.
The Raiders had a 44-28 advantage in points from the paint, but got out and ran as well, finishing with 14 fast break points, and had 11 second chance points thanks to their 12 offensive rebounds.
GAME RECAP COURTESY WRIGHT STATE ATHLETIC COMMUNICATIONS
