With one of its senior guards in the locker room, Wright State tried to cling to a 10-point second-half lead on Wednesday night in Oakland.
Needing a last-second 3-pointer to force overtime, the Raiders were overpowered down the stretch as Oakland defeated WSU 84-76 marking the Grizzlies’ first Horizon League win over the Raiders.
Wright State has lost four out of five while Oakland has won eight in a row at home and five in a row overall.
Things looked good for Wright State the first 28 minutes Wednesday. The Raiders were cruising with a 10-point lead going into the under-12 media timeout. And then misfortune struck.
WSU senior guard Kendall Griffin took what appeared at first to be an ordinary foul as Griffin went up for a layup. Oakland’s Max Hooper fouled Griffin by knocking him in the head. Griffin went down instantly with trainers rushing to his side.
Griffin left the floor and his status is unknown. Griffin suffered his fourth concussion since the start of the 2013-14 season in Wright State’s season opener against Belmont. He subsequently missed 14 games. Last week versus Milwaukee, Griffin had hit his head against the back of the chair. He sat out the rest of the game but the injury was not serious.
After returning from last week’s blow, Griffin scored a career-high 20 points Monday in Wright State’s win over Detroit.
“You keep Kendall in your thoughts,” Wright State head coach Billy Donlon said. “Obviously the game, it is what it is, the game changed when he left. There was no question we were in complete control.”
Led by a career-high scoring performance by Roderick Davis, Wright State led by as many as 12 in the contest.
After Griffin’s departure, Wright State struggled to hold onto the lead. Oakland went on a 13-2 stretch that was broken when Reggie Arceneaux hit a 3 with 4:44 left. The bucket was huge as it put WSU back ahead at 52-50. After Joe Thomasson hit a pair of free throws to put WSU up 54-50, Oakland responded with four quick points.
Thomasson and Oakland’s Dante Williams traded 3s with under two minutes left to tie the game at 57. After a Rod Davis layup, Nick Daniels converted on a three-point play to give Oakland a one-point edge.
After Arceneaux missed a 3, Kahlil Felder drained a pair of free throws with 14 seconds left. With Oakland up three, Chrishawn Hopkins hit a 3 with two seconds left to force overtime.
Unfortunately for WSU, that was as close as the Raiders got. Oakland quickly put away Wright State in overtime as the Grizzlies started the period on an 8-0 run.
“You get on the bus and there are no moral victories,” Donlon said. “We hurt ourselves with turnovers. In the last 12 minutes, we had some free throws where we missed some front ends. And then we missed some layups when we had the lead late.”
Oakland’s Hayes scored a game-high 27 points. Davis and Thomasson each scored 17. Hopkins had his best scoring performance in eight conference games scoring 16.
The Raiders fall to 3-5 in Horizon League play.
Wright State trailed 15-11 early after Oakland’s Dante Williams scored 10. WSU responded with a 15-0 run. The Raiders made their first five 3 pointers. Oakland missed eight shots in a row during WSU’s run.
The Raiders led by five at halftime.
Wright State returns home after going 1-2 on the three-game road trip and will host Green Bay Monday at 8 p.m.
