By Marisol Nicholson

12/31/2023

MILWAUKEE – Four players finished in double figures on Sunday afternoon but the Wright State men’s basketball team couldn’t hold off a late surge from Milwaukee and fell 91-83 in Horizon League action.

Wright State (6-8, 1-2 Horizon) now returns home and gets set for a visit from Cleveland State on Thursday night. Thursday’s contest is a 7 p.m. start and will be nationally televised on ESPN2.

Back-and-forth with runs from both sides in the second half, Milwaukee (7-7, 2-1 Horizon) chipped away at Wright State’s halftime lead over the first six minutes out of the locker room, eventually using a 15-4 run to lead by 12 with 10 minutes to play before the Raiders responded. Wright State scored six straight points to pull to within five and was down six moments later when Milwaukee answered with 10 of 12 points over a two-plus minute stretch that proved to be the difference.

Wright State was led by Tanner Holden’s 25 points, his third 20-plus point performance in the last four games, while Brandon Noel tallied 16 points and 10 rebounds for his third double-double of the season, now having two in the last three games. Alex Huibregtse recorded 10 of his 15 points in the first half and Trey Calvin chipped in 11 points.

The Raiders jumped out of the gates with 11 of the first 16 points and were in control most of the first half, leading my as many as eight on a pair of occasions. Wright State then scored six of the first 10 second half points to push the margin to nine three minutes into the final period, which turned out to be its largest lead of the night, before Milwaukee began to pull back into the matchup.

Wright State finished the afternoon shooting 56 percent (30-of-54) while connecting on seven three-pointers (7-13, 54 percent) with a 76 percent (16-of-21) mark from the free throw line. Milwaukee shot 55 percent (34-of-62) and was 16-of-30 (53 percent) from three-point range while going 7-of-12 (58 percent) from the stripe.

Milwaukee was led by BJ Freeman’s 23 points and also saw Kentrell Pullian finish with 20 points.

COURTESY WRIGHT STATE ATHLETIC COMMUNICATIONS