Raiders KO’D by Butler’s early flurry

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INDIANAPOLIS — On Sunday, four days before many of his players would experience Butler’s Hinkle Fieldhouse for the first time, Wright State basketball coach Billy Donlon met with the team.

His message was that practice intensity needed to increase significantly for the Raiders to have any chance of staying close early.

“Butler tries to knock you out,” Donlon said. “They’re like Mike Tyson in his prime.”

In the opening minutes Thursday, WSU was effectively KO’D. Trailing by double digits before the game had reached eight minutes, the Raiders dropped a matchup of teams tied for fifth place, 64-53, in front of 6,543.

It was the Raiders’ ninth straight loss to Butler at Hinkle Fieldhouse and 10th loss in 11 games to the Bulldogs overall, and it began with a 15-4 Butler lead with 12:52 left in the first half. The Raiders never again got closer than five points.

“We just need to come out ready to play,” said WSU guard Julius Mays, who finished with eight points (the Raiders are 3-6 when he is scoreless or in single digits). “We let them throw the first few blows, and we were trying to fight back since.”

Wright State (11-13, 6-6) fell back into a sixth-place tie with Detroit in the Horizon League after making just 4-of-6 free throws to Butler’s 18-of-23 performance at the line.

Armond Battle led the Raiders with 18 points, including 5-of-6 3-pointers, as Mays and sophomore A.J. Pacher each added eight.

Butler (13-11, 7-5) climbed into a three-way tie for third place in the league with Youngstown State and Wisconsin-milwaukee. With offensive troubles throughout the year, the Bulldogs have looked very different from teams that advanced to the past two NCAA tournament championship games. But on Thursday, they shot 61.9 percent in the first half and got 13 points from sophomore guard Chrishawn Hopkins.

“I thought we played really well,” said Butler coach Brad Stevens. “In a lot of ways, as good of a game as we’ve played.” Contact this reporter at (937) 2257389 or knagel@daytondailynews .com.