Wright St

INDIANAPOLIS –There is a stick that Valparaiso has used three times this year to beat Wright State with and the Raiders are on the short end of it as they lost their third game in a row to the Crusaders 72-67 in the quarterfinals of the Horizon League Championship.

Earlier this year at Wright State, Valpo pulled out a 71-67 win and then last Saturday on ESPN2 Valpo beat the Raiders in overtime 75-73.

DAYTON – Wright State’s 20th win was not easy, but this year they really haven’t had any easy wins. The Raiders pulled out a 59-58 win to send most of the 6998 fans home happy.

With 1:38 left in the game Todd Brown hit a 3-pointer to put Wright State up 57-56.

At the 1:16 mark Wright State’s Cooper Land fouled Chris Hayes, after a media timeout he sank both free throws to put the Flames up 58-57.

At the 4 second mark Wright State’s Vaughn Duggins hit a jump shot to put the Raiders back up 59-58.

DAYTON – Another close game, another win for the Raiders, as Wright State holds on to beat Loyola 55-51

That makes nine straight wins by the Raiders and every win has been by single digits. Wright State (18-6, 10-4 HL) has only played three games that were decided by double digits this year.

Unfortunately for Loyola (9-15, 5-9 HL) that makes 12 straight games decided by less than 10 points and only four of them were wins.

Tonight the Raiders jumped out to an 11-0 lead as Will Graham contributed a jumper and a layup, Vaughn Duggins did the same and Todd Brown sunk a 3-pointer.

DAYTON – Presbyterian College visited the Nutter Center and the result of the game were pretty predictable; Wright State beat the dog crap out of the Blue Hose 58-42.

I will get to the game a little later but first let’s take a look at Presbyterian College (3-22).

PC is a liberal arts small college of 1200 students from Clinton, SC. playing their first year of Division I basketball. They play one of the tougher schedules in the country if for no other reason than they play all their games but five are on the road.

2008 O'Reilly ESPNU BracketBusters Television Matchups

Friday, Feb 22
Davidson at Winthrop
UCSB at Utah State

Saturday, Feb 23
Creighton at Oral Roberts
George Mason at Ohio
Kent State at St. Mary’s (Ca.)
Marist at Cleveland State
Miami at Valparaiso
Nevada at Southern Illinois
Rider at CS Northridge
Siena at Boise State
UWM at Bradley
Virginia Commonwealth at Akron

Sunday, Feb 24
Wright State at Illinois State

2008 O'Reilly ESPNU BracketBusters Non-Television Matchups
* Times to be Announced

Albany at Canisius

DAYTON – In the end, down by 15 points, Green Bay stopped playing traditional defense and just trapped on almost every possession.

The defensive gamble got them close but when the dust settled Wright State won their fourth game in a row beating Green Bay 71-67.

At the 7:45 mark Wright State (13-6, 6-4 HL) went up 59-44 on a 3-pointer by Cooper Land.

Then Green Bay’s Rahmon Fletcher went to work. In the next 70 seconds he made two layups and a 3-pointer to make it a 59-51 game.

DAYTON – When a team out-shoots its opponent from the field, from 3-point land and from the foul line you would expect that team to win.

Well, except if that team is the Wright State Raiders.

The visiting Cleveland State Vikings managed to steal a win 65-63 over Wright State and send 6477 fans home sad.

First the stats. Wright State 54.1 % FG (20-37), 63.6 % 3FG (7-11) and 72.7% (16-22). Cleveland State 39.7%FG(23-58), 29.4% 3FG(5-17) and 70%(14-20)

Want more stats?

DAYTON – Hey! Wright State actually won a game by double digits as they defeated Youngstown State 66-55.

For the Raiders their only other double digit win was against Coastal Carolina in the first game of the year.

As for the Penguins it ended a three wins in four game stretch that saw them beat Slippery Rock, UIC and Loyola, while losing to Milwaukee.

By no means was this game a laugher.

CHATTANOOGA – Sometime time seems to stand still and tonight for Wright State coach Brad Brownell the game clock just seemed to be frozen as Chattanooga rained a blizzard of 3-pointers over the last 47 seconds to erase a 25 point lead and get within three points before losing the Championship game 87-82.

-At Wright State’s walk-through today it looked like a hospital on the side-line. There were some crutches on the press table, trainer Tony Ortiz’s medical bag was sitting out on the table and injured player Gavin Horne was also sitting on the table with his ankle in an inflatable boot that was hooked up to what appeared to be a car battery. It is called a Game Ready—Accelerated Recovery Unit device that compresses a sprained ankle to force the swelling out of it.