By Pete Ross
2 27 2025
DAYTON – The Wright State men’s basketball team is set for a showdown with Cleveland State on Thursday night in front of a national audience inside the Nutter Center. Tipoff is set for 9 p.m. on ESPN2 and fans can follow the action several ways – watching on ESPN2, 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 feed.
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.**
THURSDAY: WATCH ON ESPN2 | FOLLOW LIVE STATS | LISTEN ON 101.5 HANK FM | GAME NOTES | TICKETS
LAST TIME OUT
Brandon Noel tallied 18 of his 22 points in the final 20 minutes to lead a second half charge, but Wright State came up just short, falling 80-76 last Friday at home to Northern Kentucky inside the Nutter Center. Noel’s 22 points were a game high, as were his 11 rebounds, as he collected his ninth double-double of the year to lead four Raiders in double figures scoring. Solomon Callaghan tallied 16 points, Michael Imariagbe had 14 points and Jack Doumbia added 12 points.
COOL CALLAGHAN
Solomon Callaghan has turned in four-straight double digit scoring performances, including a pair of 16-point efforts at Milwaukee (Feb. 14) and against Northern Kentucky (Feb. 21) and a career-high 21 points at Green Bay (Feb. 16). He currently has seven double digit scoring games. In this four-game stretch, Callaghan is shooting 61.5 percent overall (up from 40.5 percent season average) and is at 54.1 percent from deep (39.2 percent season), while he’s averaging 34.5 minutes a night (22.2 min./game average)
BACK 2 BACK ON 2?
Wright State is looking for lightening in a bottle at home against Cleveland State in front of a national audience for the second straight season. Last January, the Raiders led start to finish in an 82-70 win over Cleveland State on ESPN2. Brandon Noel’s 24 points were a game-high in the home matchup last season.
FAMILIAR FOES
Wright State has won 13 of the last 20 contests in the series overall, which is the longest series all-time in Raider history. The Raiders and Vikings have met 85 times previously, with Wright State coming away with 44 wins. The first-ever meeting came Feb. 12, 1972, a Cleveland State 72-62 win in Cleveland. The first matchup in Dayton came Jan. 21, 1974, a 69-45 Raider win (third meeting overall).
BELIEVE-LAND
– Cleveland State is 19-10 overall with a 13-5 mark in the Horizon League, however, the Vikings enter Thursday having lost three of their last four games overall. Cleveland State is currently 7-6 on the road.
– Tevin Smith (13.6 ppg), Tahj Staveskie (12.4 ppg) and Dylan Arnett (11.2 ppg) led the offensive attack, with Arnett’s 7.2 rebounds per game tops on the roster.
NO STRANGER TO THE NATIONAL AUDIENCE
Wright State’s Thursday matchup with Cleveland State marks the fourth national television selection this season for the Raiders, joining the season opener at Kentucky, as well as Myrtle Beach Invitational matchups against Bradley and USF, from November. Wright State has now had three or more regular season ESPN linear games in each of the last three seasons and has had at least one regular season linear contest in 18 of the last 19 seasons dating back to 2006-07, with multiple regular season contests 14 times in that same 19-year stretch.
COURTESY WRIGHT STATE ATHLETIC COMMUNICATIONS
