By Anna Bella Ramirez

MYRTLE BEACH, SC – Logan Woods poured in a career-best 18 points and Brandon Noel added a game-high 27 points as the Wright State men’s basketball team shot 53 percent on the way to an 80-62 victory over Princeton Thursday night in the opening round of the Myrtle Beach Invitational.

Wright State (4-2) advances in the bracket to take on Bradley Friday afternoon in a 5 p.m. tipoff on ESPNU. Bradley moved to 4-1 overall with an 82-68 win over Texas State earlier on Thursday.

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The Raiders opened Thursday night with 11 of the first 16 points and led 22-9 just over eight minutes into the contest and never looked back, leading by as many as 19 points in the opening 20 minutes and took a 43-25 lead into the locker room. Princeton (4-2) scored the first four points of the second half, but Wright State responded with a 12-6 run of its own to push the margin to 22 points, the largest of the night, as the Raiders coasted from there.

Woods scored 11 of his 18 points in the first half as he finished the night shooting 6-of-10 overall with five three-pointers, as Noel evenly distributed his scoring on the way to his 27 points, the fourth time in six contests he’s tallied 20-plus points, while grabbing nine rebounds and adding three blocks and three steals. Keaton Norris tallied three triples of his own as part of an 11-point night as he passed out eight assists, with Alex Huibregtse added 10 points as both Norris and Huibregtse pulled down five rebounds. Jack Doumbia grabbed a career- and game-high 12 rebounds off the bench for the Raiders, adding eight points.

As a group, Wright State finished the win shooting 53 percent overall (26-of-49) while connecting on 12 three-pointers for a 52 percent mark (12-of-23) from downtown. The Raiders got to the free throw 20 times, going 16-of-20 (80 percent), including a perfect 8-of-8 mark in the first half. Defensively, Wright State held Princeton to just 35 percent shooting (20-of-57) and an 8-of-27 mark (30 percent) from three-point range.

The Raiders tallied 18 assists on their 28 made baskets while getting it done on the glass as well, finishing with a 40-27 rebounding edge with 34 boards on the defensive end.

COURTESY WRIGHT STATE ATHLETIC COMMUNICATIONS