Upstart Raiders earn title shot
Wright State advances to Tuesday’s final after toppling No. 2 seed.
GREEN BAY, WIS. —
Wright State men’s basketball coach Billy Donlon likes to say defense travels, but the Raiders also packed a suitcase full shots for their trip to the Horizon League tournament in Green Bay.
One day after shooting 53.5 percent in a quarterfinal win against Oakland, third-seeded WSU connected on 55 percent of its shots Saturday night to upset No. 2 Cleveland State 68-63 in a semifinal contest at the Resch Center.
“Coach has had us in the gym shooting,” senior forward Cole Darling said after tying his season high with 21 points of 5-of-10 shooting from the floor and 10-of10 from the free throw line to lead WSU to its sixth consecutive win.
“We work all year for tournament time,” Darling added. “That’s what all of our games leading up to this are for.”
The win sends the Raiders (20-13) to the conference championship game for the second year in a row, where they will play Tuesday against the winner of Saturday’s second semifinal between topseeded Wisconsin-Green Bay
and No. 5 Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
If Green Bay is the opponent, the tournament will stay at the Resch Center. But if it’s the Panthers, the site switches to the Nutter Center.
“Our guys are really motivated,” WSU coach Billy Donlon said. “I just want these guys to have a chance to play in the NCAA tournament. There’s very few things that will happen in your life that will be more meaningful than making the NCAA tournament. Your children, your marriage, graduation, but beyond that there’s few things more significant than making the NCAA tournament, and I really want it for those guys in that locker room.”
Wright State and Cleveland State (21-11) traded the lead eight times in the first half, but Wright State scored on its first 10 possessions to take a 37- 31 lead the break on the strength of 62-percent shooting from the floor, including 63 percent from 3-point range.
“They drove us early and ended up getting a lot of dump downs because they spread you out,” CSU coach Gary Waters said. “I thought they did a great job of that. It was a struggle for us the entire game to control that aspect of it.”
Miles Dixon, who had a season-high 20 points Friday night, came back with 17 against Cleveland State, while AJ Pacher had 11 to go along with a team-high eight rebounds.
The Raiders’ hot hands cooled off a bit in the second half, but that when the Horizon League’s topranked defense stepped up.
After Darling hit a pair of free throws to give WSU a 51-50 lead, the Raiders forced CSU into turnovers on three consecutive possessions. And then Wright State made four of its next five shots, culminating with a Matt Vest trey in the corner that made it 63-57 with 1: 58 to go.
“That took us out,” Waters said. “That was a big three. We were playing cat-and-mouse down the stretch, and then their veterans took over. They executed down the stretch, and we didn’t.”
Charlie Lee led CSU with 16 points, while Trey Lewis added 14 and Anton Grady had 10 points and 13 rebounds.
But Jerran Young and Dixon held Vikings leading scorer Bryn Forbes to eight points on 2 of 4 shooting.