A sluggish start doomed the Raiders Thursday as Wright State dropped its third in four contests with a 68-64 loss at Milwaukee.
After going 0-for-6 in the first half, JT Yoho scored 19 of his game-high 20 for Wright State in the second half as his yeoman’s effort late came up just short for WSU.
Tavares Sledge made his first start of the year for Wright State. He had a season-high 12 points for the Raiders in addition to seven rebounds.
Jerran Young made a couple big 3-pointers and scored 10.
The game got away from Wright State early. The Panthers went on an early 8-0 run to go up 14-5. Minutes later, Milwaukee had its lead at 16.
The Raiders committed 10 turnovers and shot 27.6 percent from the field as they trailed the Panthers 38-23 at halftime.
“You can’t have 10 first half turnovers at anytime, never mind on the road,” Wright State coach Billy Donlon said. “We got some really good shots the first seven minutes and didn’t make any of them. We guarded okay during that time, could have guarded better and then they started to score and then we took some bad ones (shots) and that stretched the lead.”
The Panthers extended their lead to 20 3:18 into the second half.
But the Raiders chipped away. JT Yoho his three buckets in a row to score seven quick points and cut UWM’s lead to 52-38 with 11 minutes remaining. Buckets by Sledge and Pacher cut the deficit to 10.
With 4:19 left, Sledge made a basket and then added a pair of free throws to cut UWM’s lead to four.
With 1:08 left, Yoho cut the lead to 3 for the first time since early in the first half. With the Raiders desperate for a stop, WSU got its wish as Milwaukee’s Jordan Aaron missed a 3-pointer but Matt Tiby grabbed a rebound and was fouled by Young.
After missing both free throws, WSU had a chance to tie but Young missed his shot. Aaron converted on a pair of free throws but Yoho responded with another 3 to cut UWM’s lead to two.
With the game on the line, Kyle Helm hit a pair of free throws with 10 seconds left to clinch the Panthers’ fourth conference win of the year.
The Raiders do not have much time to dwell on Thursday’s loss as they bus to Green Bay for a Saturday night tilt that will be televised on ESPN2.
