GREEN BAY – Brandon Noel recorded a new career-high 32 points on Thursday night on the way to his fourth straight double-double as he paced the Wright State men’s basketball team to a 99-67 road victory over Green Bay as the Raiders shot 72 percent as a group overall.
Noel ended the night shooting 14-of-17 from the floor overall and was 4-of-4 at the free throw line as he reached the 30-point mark for the first time in his career, easily surpassing his previous high of 23 points from November. He added a game-high 12 rebounds for his fourth straight double-double and sixth double-double of the campaign.
Wright State (10-8, 3-4 Horizon) jumped out of the gates and never looked back, scoring the game’s first six points as the Raiders led 19-8 just under eight minutes into the contest and later led by as many as 16 late in the first half before settling on a 42-33 halftime lead. The Raiders came out of the break and tallied 12 of the first 17 second half points to erase any Green Bay (2-16, 1-6 Horizon) thoughts of a comeback.
Noel’s 32 points marked the third Raider performance of 30-plus points this season, joining Trey Calvin’s 37 points in the season-opener against Davidson and Calvin’s 31-point effort at Northern Kentucky.
Calvin finished with 16 points on Thursday night, one of four other Wright State double-digit scorers, while Amari Davis tallied 15 points in his return to his former school and Tim Finke added 13 points of his own as he and Calvin each passed out six assists. Wisconsin native Alex Huibregtse turned in nine points off the bench for the Raiders as he played his first collegiate game in his home state.
Wright State finished the night shooting 71.9 percent from the floor (41-of-57), marking the second time this season the Raiders have finished at over 70 percent shooting after their 74.1 percent mark against Defiance back in December. On Thursday, Wright State connected at a 67.9 percent clip in the opening 20 minutes before closing with a 75.9 percent second half shooting mark. The Raiders did nearly all their work inside, tallying 64 points in the paint while hitting just four three-pointers (4-7, 57 percent).
The Raiders also controlled the glass, outrebounding Green Bay 34-18, including pulling down 25 defensive rebounds, aided by Noel who pulled down 10 of his 12 total rebounds on the defensive glass. Wright State committed just nine turnovers while forcing Green Bay into 14 turnovers that the Raiders turned into 23 points off the giveaways.
Green Bay ended the night shooting 46 percent overall (24-52) while hitting 36 percent (8-22) from three-point range. All of the hosts’ scoring came from six players, five of which scored in double digits, paced by Cade Meyer’s 13 points.
The Raiders continue their Wisconsin trip with a visit to Milwaukee, who defeated NKU Thursday night, for a Saturday contest as they look to sweep the Wisconsin road trip for the first time since the 2012-13 season. Wright State and Milwaukee are set for a 7 p.m. ET tipoff on Saturday night from Panther Arena.
COURTESY WSU ATHLETIC COMMUNICATIONS