DAYTON – The Wright State men’s basketball team heads north to Wisconsin as the Raiders are set for a pair of road contests this weekend, beginning with a Thursday night meeting at Green Bay. The Raiders have won four of their last six contests, while Green Bay is on a seven-game losing streak. Tipoff is set for 8 p.m. ET from the Resch Center.
Fans can follow the action several ways – via live stats, by watching on ESPN+ or by tuning in on WONE 980 AM. Chris Collins and Jim Brown will have all the play-by-play on the radio feed.
THURSDAY: WATCH ON ESPN+ | FOLLOW LIVE STATS | LISTEN ON WONE 980 AM | GAME NOTES
LAST TIME OUT
A final second shot could not connect for Wright State on Sunday as the Raiders fell 75-73 to Oakland inside the Nutter Center. AJ Braun led the Raiders with 15 points, nine of which came in the second half, as he shot 70 percent overall and just missed out on a double-double with nine rebounds. Brandon Noel recorded his third double-double of the week, pulling down a game-high 15 rebounds to go along with 14 points, while Davis also finished with 13 points for Wright State.
FACING THE PHOENIX
Green Bay is in the middle of a seven-game losing steak entering Thursday’s matchup and is just 2-15 overall and 1-5 in Horizon League play to date. The meeting with Wright State begins a four-game homestand for Green Bay, who has tallied both victories at home so far this season. Wright State has won 11 of the last 13 meetings overall in the series. The first meeting came back on December 7, 1987, a Green Bay victory in the Raiders’ first year as a Division I program. A tight series throughout history, Wright State now has a slim, 36-33 overall series lead entering this season
A WIN WOULD. . .
A victory would be Wright State’s fifth-straight in the series against Green Bay as the Raiders play the first of two games on their longest Horizon League road trip of the season in terms of distance when they trek to Wisconsin.
PHOENIX RISING
-Green Bay is 2-15 overall to date with a 1-5 Horizon League record, with both victories coming at home over a five-day stretch (Dec. 5 vs. IUPUI (68-61) and Dec. 10 vs. Kansas City (70-64)).
-The Phoenix have played 13 games away from home, including 11 true road contests, with Thursday’s game against the Raiders their first home game since Dec. 10.
-Coming off a seven-game road trip, Green Bay now plays its next four games at home.
CAREER WEEK
Brandon Noel was named Horizon League Freshman of the Week on Jan. 9 after averaging 15.3 points and 15.7 rebounds as he turned in three double-doubles with a 63.3 percent overall shooting percentage for the week. He did the majority of his rebound work on the defensive end, pulling down 33 of his 47 total rebounds on the defensive glass. Noel grabbed 15 rebounds at IUPUI (Jan. 2) before a career-best 17 rebounds against Detroit Mercy (Jan. 6), following that with another 15-rebound effort versus Oakland (Jan. 8).
BUCKING THE TREND
Wright State is looking to change recent history on this trip to Wisconsin, where the Raiders have split the Green Bay-Milwaukee matchups yearly dating back to the 2015-16 campaign (the Raiders didn’t travel to Wisconsin in the COVID-altered 2020-21 season). Dating back to the 2010-11 season, Wright State has won both games on the trip just once – beating Green Bay in double overtime Feb. 7, 2013 and followed that up with a victory at Milwaukee on Feb. 9, 2013 during the 2013-14 campaign. The Raiders have split the trip or lost both contests (2011-12 & 2013-14 seasons) in all other trips over the last 12 seasons.
SECOND HALF CALVIN
Trey Calvin is averaging 10.3 points in the second half of games to date, including 21 second half points in the comeback win over Detroit Mercy on Jan. 6. Calvin has scored double digits in nine second halves to date, including five of the last seven games, while averaging 7.7 first half points this season with five total first half double digit scoring outputs.
WISCONSIN HOMECOMING
Wisconsin native Alex Huibregtse will play his first collegiate games in his home state of Wisconsin this weekend. The Grafton, WI native and the Raiders hosted both Green Bay and Milwaukee in the COVID-altered 2020-21 season and Huibregtse missed last season’s road games with injury. Grafton is an hour and a half from the Resch Center in Green Bay and just 25 minutes from Panther Arena in Milwaukee, with Huibregtse expecting fans in both locations. Huibregtse was a Wisconsin First Team All-State selection in Division 2 as a senior after averaging 24.2 points per game while shooting 47.3 percent from three-point range.
Amari Davis returns to Green Bay for the first time since transferring from the Phoenix following the 2020-21 season. Davis was the Horizon League Freshman of the Year and broke the school all-time freshman scoring record in 2019-20. Davis was a second-team 2020-21 All-Horizon League selection as a sophomore, leading Green Bay in scoring (17.1), steals (32) and minutes (34.6) and ranking fourth in the Horizon League in points per game.
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