2/19/2023

FORT WAYNE, IN – Trey Calvin’s jumper with two seconds remaining gave the Raiders the lead, but Purdue Fort Wayne’s Damian Chong Qui connected from just inside the halfcourt line at the buzzer to hand the Wright State men’s basketball team a 77-75 defeat on Sunday afternoon.
 
Wright State (16-13, 9-9 Horizon) trailed by as many as 12 in the first half before battling back throughout the afternoon, with Calvin’s back down jumper with 2.8 seconds to play the first Raider lead of the afternoon with the momentary 75-74 advantage. Purdue Fort Wayne (16-13, 8-10 Horizon) immediately inbounded to Chong Qui, who pulled up just on his side of the half court line and fired over the outstretched hand of Brandon Noel for the winner.
 
Alex Huibregtse connected on a career-best six three-pointers to finish with 24 points, one point shy of his career high, finishing 9-of-14 from the floor for the afternoon as he tallied 15 points in the second half. Calvin finished with 22 points on 7-of-13 shooting, filling his stat line with six assists, four rebounds, two blocks and a steal as both he and Huibregtse both played a game-high 37 minutes.
 
Brandon Noel tallied his ninth double-double of the season, finishing with 12 points and 11 rebounds while turning away three blocked shots, while AJ Braun chipped in eight points.
 
Purdue Fort Wayne jumped out of the gates with six of the first eight points on the afternoon and used a spurt to push the advantage to 12 with 4:48 to go in the half before Wright State closed the first 20 minutes on a 12-5 run to pull to 37-32 at the break.
 
The Raiders cut the margin to two points with just over 10 minutes to play and hit baskets to pull back to a one possession game six times over the next seven minutes, trailing 70-68 with 3:17 to go after a Noel dunk before tying the game the next time down the floor on a Noel layup with 2:28 remaining. After a Purdue Fort Wayne go-ahead basket, Wright State missed a shot and had a turnover on its next two possessions as the Mastodons pushed the margin to four with 57 seconds to play. A Noel three-pointer from straight on cut the margin to one and the Raiders forced a Purdue Fort Wayne miss to set up the closing seconds.
 
Wright State finished the afternoon shooting 51 percent (29-57) and had 11 three-pointers (11-26, 42 percent) while holding Purdue Fort Wayne to 44 percent shooting (31-70) overall and a 7-of-26 mark from three-point range. Both sides finished with 34 rebounds, with the Raiders pulling down 29 defensive boards while Wright State passed out 14 assists.
 
 Jarred Godfrey’s game-high 25 points led three Purdue Fort Wayne players in double figures.
 
Wright State closes the regular season next weekend on the road in the Detroit metro area, first taking on Oakland on Thursday night before a Saturday afternoon meeting at Detroit Mercy.

COURTESY WRIGHT STATE ATHLETIC COMMUNICATIONS