By Cord Rankin
DAYTON – The Wright State men’s basketball team returns home to the Nutter Center for a Saturday night matchup with visiting Air Force in the Stars, Stripes, Flight Classic. Gates are set to open at 5:30 p.m., with tipoff set for 7 p.m. Fans can follow the action several ways – watching on ESPN+, via live stats or by tuning in to the home for Raider Basketball 101.5 HANK FM and WING 1410 AM. Chris Collins and Jim Brown will have all the play-by-play on the radio television feeds.
Fans can tune into 101.5 HANK FM live over the air in the Dayton metro area, as well stream the station live nationwide through a variety of free streaming apps. The iHeartRadio app, the TuneIn Radio app and the Audacy app are all FREE and each carry 101.5 HANK FM. Just search “101.5 HANK FM” on any of the three apps for Raider Basketball.
**Fans are encouraged to use the Wright State Raiders app as the primary method for managing their digital tickets, which are required for entry to all WSU basketball events. Tickets for the 2024-25 basketball seasons are now uploaded and accessible on all purchaser accounts. Fans can easily view their tickets, download them to their mobile wallet, or transfer them to another individual account.**
SATURDAY: WATCH ON ESPN+ | FOLLOW LIVE STATS | LISTEN ON 101.5 HANK FM | GAME NOTES | TICKETS
LAST TIME OUT
Jack Doumbia gave Wright State a one-point lead with five seconds remaining, but USF’s Jayden Reid answered with a contested, fallaway jumper in the closing moments to hand the Raiders a 73-72 loss in the third-place game of the Myrtle Beach Invitational on Sunday. Doumbia finished with a game- and career-high 18 points on 9-of-11 shooting as he tallied his first career double-double with 10 rebounds as well. Solomon Callaghan added a career-high 15 points of his own, adding seven rebounds and three assists. Alex Huibregtse tallied 12 points and Keaton Norris had 10 points to go along with four assists.
STARS, STRIPES, FLIGHT
Saturday’s Stars, Stripes, Flight Classic is the third meeting all time between the two schools, who met in back-to-back Decembers in a home-and-home series late in the 2010 and 2011 calendar years. The Raiders won the first meeting on Dec. 8, 2010, at the Nutter Center, while Air Force won the follow-up contest on Dec. 7, 2011, in Colorado.
WATCH LIST
Brandon Noel has been named to a pair of national watch lists, being honored as one of 50 players on the 2024-25 Lou Henson ‘Early Season’ Watch List as well as being one of 68 players named to Bracketeer.Org’s 2025 Non-Power Conference All-American Watch List. The Lou Henson Award is presented annually to the top player in mid-major college basketball, while Bracketeer’s All-American Watch List for the Non-Power Conferences recognizes the college basketball season’s most outstanding players regardless of position.
DEFENSIVE CHANGES
Wright State has allowed 75 points or less in six of eight contests to date after holding opponents to 75 points or less eight total times last season, with the first instance not coming until Nov. 22 against Illinois State in MTE action.
FLYING FALCONS
– Air Force is 2-5 overall and coming off of a two-point home loss to Sacramento State on Wednesday. Air Force has played on the road just once this season, falling by nine at Cal on Nov. 21.
– Despite the over 17 hour distance between Colorado Springs and Dayton, Air Force played two games with a larger travel distance last season: at LIU (Brooklyn, NY) and at Delaware (Newark, DE) Nov. 10 and 12 a year ago.
JACK OF ALL TRADES
Jack Doumbia finished with a game- and career-best 18 points on Nov. 24 against USF, following up a 16 point effort two days earlier from against Bradley. After going scoreless in the opener at Kentucky, Doumbia has tallied seven straight games with eight or more point. He’s been efficient too, shooting 61.1 percent. In addition to the scoring, Doumbia has added multiple rebounds in all eight games – including a career-high 12 boards against Princeton on Nov. 21.
COURTESY WRIGHT STATE ATHLETIC COMMUNICATIONS
