VALPARAISO, Ind. – Wright State went toe to toe with the league’s best team for much of Saturday’s contest, but poor rebounding and a 14-0 run sunk the Raiders as Valpo won on its senior night 55-48.
For much of Saturday’s contest, Wright State did not appear to look like a team that was fighting to stay out of last place in the Horizon League standings. The Raiders led for stretches of Saturday’s game.
“We come to the best team in the league based on record at this point in time and we give them all they can handle on the road,” Wright State head coach Billy Donlon said. “I saw some road games today and they were nightmares for the road team.”
The Raiders (11-17, 3-11) were bested off the boards in the second half as Valpo (25-4, 12-2) scored 14 points off 10 offensive rebounds in the second half.
“I told our guys if you want to beat Valpo, you have to out-rebound them,” Donlon said.
Despite falling behind by 11 in the second half, Wright State clawed back to make it a four-point game with four minutes to go. With four seconds left on the shot clock, Valpo’s Alec Peters buried a contested 3 pointer from the top of the key off of an inbounds, which gave Valpo a seven-point lead.
The shot sent the sold-out crowd in to a frenzy and put a dagger through the Raiders.
“If you look at since the Cleveland State game on, every game has been a war,” Donlon said about the team’s last five games. “We just come up on the short end.”
The aforementioned Peters scored 17 points and added 10 rebounds for a double double.
The Raiders came out firing in the second half as Michael Karena stuffed home a missed shot, followed by a Reggie Arceneaux jumper. The Raiders took their largest lead of the game at 28-23 53 seconds into the second half.
“It was a great start for us in the second half,” Karena said. “We just always find a way where we have a moment where our offense impacts our defense. They get back into the game and it is something we have to work on before the big tournament comes up.”
That moment came just minutes into the second half.
After Valpo and WSU traded made field goals, the Crusaders went on a 14-0 run over a nearly nine-minute span to take a 43-32 lead. Despite WSU being down by 11, the Raiders had confidence they could rally, like they did in their previous three games.
“That’s when our leadership needs to step in,” Hopkins said. “We need to keep competing on defense. Our defense slacked off for a couple of minutes in the second half and that got them back in the game. We just need to play a full 40 minutes.”
Karena hit a layup that started an 8-1 Wright State run to cut Valpo’s lead to four. The Raiders kept it a two possession game until Peter’s 3.
Defense reigned in the first half as WSU allowed just two points in the final 6:43 of the half. Wright State got off to a quick 8-4 lead. Valpo and Wright State alternated leads seven times in the first half.
Wright State held a 24-23 lead at halftime after Chrishawn Hopkins hit Wright State’s only 3 of the game. The Raiders went 1-of-14 from beyond the arc.
Hopkins and Grant Benzinger led the Raiders’ scoring effort with 11 points each. Karena added 10 points along with seven rebounds.
Wright State falls a half game behind UIC for seventh place in the Horizon League. The two teams are battling to host a first-round Horizon League Tournament game as the regular season ends at UIC next week.
