By Annie Walker
DAYTON – The Wright State men’s basketball team closed out its non-conference slate and went into the holiday break with a 101-54 win over visiting Muskingum on Friday afternoon inside the Nutter Center.
Wright State (6-6, 1-0 Horizon) now steps back into Horizon League play for its final 19 games of the regular season, beginning next Friday afternoon with a 12 p.m. ET contest at Green Bay before the Raiders end the 2023 calendar year at Milwaukee on January 31.
On Friday, the Raiders used a 13-0 run early in the first half over a three-and-a-half minute stretch to break open the contest, with five different players scoring during the run. Wright State led 47-24 at the intermission and came out of the locker room and scored 13 of the first 15 points of the second half to put the game on ice.
Tanner Holden led Wright State with 19 points and Andrew Welage finished with 17 points as both players scored 11 points in the second half. AJ Braun did most of his work early, finishing with nine of his 12 points in the opening 20 minutes while he tied his career-high with a game-best 12 rebounds. Kaden Brown notched 14 points for a new career-best of his own, Trey Calvin added 13 points and Drey Carter finished with 12 points.
The Raiders shot 61 percent in the opening half before settling on a 59.4 percent final shooting number (41-of-69), while they hit nine three-pointers (9-of-23, 39 percent) as a group, tied for their second-most in a game this season. They were also efficient from the free throw line, going 10-of-14 (71 percent) in the win.
Defensively, Wright State held Muskingum to 29 percent shooting in the first half and a 33 percent (22-of-66) mark overall, with the visitors going 7-of-32 (22 percent) from deep. The Raiders only gave Muskingum six free throw attempts all afternoon (3-of-6) while forcing the Muskies into 14 turnovers that resulted in 25 points off the giveaways.
Owen Emig finished with 11 points to lead nine Muskingum players in the scoring column.
BOX SCORE
https://wsuraiders.com/boxscore.aspx?path=mbball&id=9655
COURTESY WSU ATHLETIC COMMUNICATIONS
