Texarkana Gazette

Wright State defeats Hogs

- By Jim Vertuno

AUSTIN — Arkansas came to the NCAA Tournament armed with a seasoned lineup forged in a tough regular season that included wins over UConn and Baylor.

Wright State came with scorer Angel

Baker and an attitude that it was time to make history. Baker and the No. 13-seed

Raiders did just that.

Baker’s 3-pointer with 29.1 seconds snatched the lead, and Jada Roberson’s two free throws with 8.1 seconds left sealed a 66-62 win over the No. 4 Razorbacks on Monday in the biggest upset of the first two days of the tournament.

The Raiders (19-7) pulled off the first win by a No. 13 over a No. 4 since 2012 and earned their first tournament win in school history. Coming into this year’s tournament, No. 13 seeds were just 9-104 all-time.

“It feels good man,” Baker said. “We made history for our program, for our university … Definitely feel like we were underestim­ated. A lot of teams fail to realize numbers don’t mean nothing though, so they probably look at it like an underdog. We stepped up to the challenge.”

Baker averaged 25 points in carrying Wright State to the Horizon League tournament championsh­ip and scorched the Razorbacks for 26. Her 3-pointer from the right wing was the fourth lead change in the final two minutes.

The win wasn’t sealed until Roberson stepped to the line and made her only two free throw attempts of the game.

Chelsea Dungee scored 27 points for Arkansas (199) and gave the Razorbacks the lead at 59-58. But she left in tears as the Raiders closed out the victory and celebrated wildly on their bench at the buzzer.

“They trusted themselves and each other,” Wright State coach Katrina Merriweath­er said. “We are a driving, rebounding, defending team.”

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