With much of its lineup on the bench wearing street clothes, Wright State rallied from a 15-point deficit only to fall short as Illinois-Chicago’s hot shooting downed the Raiders 79-75 Thursday evening.
Already shorthanded by injuries, the Raiders were without starting guards Chrishawn Hopkins and Joe Thomasson. The duo were involved in a car crash earlier in the week, which caused them to suffer from possible concussions.
Hopkins and Thomasson will miss at least a week due to their injuries.
The loss was the Raiders’ fourth in a row and seventh of their last eight games. The loss drops Wright State into eighth place out of nine teams in the Horizon League. If the season ended today, WSU would travel to UIC for the first round of the Horizon League Championships.
WSU freshman guard Grant Benzinger set his career high with 23 points. Center Michael Karena also notched his career mark at WSU with 21 points.
UIC shot 54.5 percent from the field and 64.7 percent from beyond the arc.
For the first 20 minutes of Thursday’s contest, it was clear the Raiders looked shorthanded. Paris Burns had the game’s first nine points. The Flames led by as many as 16 in the first half.
Burns had 19 for the Flames in the first half as UIC led 45-30 at halftime.
“If you look at his 3 point shooting coming into the game, it was definitely not 4-for-4 on his first four,” Wright State head coach Billy Donlon said. “Credit Burns on making shots.”
With a mission to stop Burns, Donlon inserted walk-on Daniel Collie into the game. Collie has only played 10 minutes all year coming into Thursday’s game was up to the task of stopping Burns. Burns’ only second-half points came late on a pair of free throws.
Taking Burns out of the game allowed Wright State to make a furious rally. Donlon did not make any substitutions in the first 12 minutes of the second half as he went with Karena, Benzinger and Collie along with Justin Mitchell and Grant Evans for the bulk of the half.
“My plan wasn’t to play that group the entire 20 minutes but that is the way the game flowed,” Wright State head coach Billy Donlon said. “They earned us the right and they were winning us the game.”
Wright State went on a 15-2 run in the middle of the second half to take its first lead of the game at 59-57 with 6:05 left. The Raiders held three leads of no more than two points late in the second half.
After WSU led 63-61, UIC countered with a 11-3 run to put the contest out of reach. During that run, Karena fouled out of the contest after playing a season high 36 minutes.
“I am proud of our guys in that second half,” Donlon said.
Despite missing five players who could all potentially be starters, the Raiders had an opportunity to win the game at the free throw line. WSU shot 7-of-15 from the line.
“You can talk about the first half, but you can’t be 7-of-15 from the foul line and win,” Donlon said.
The Raiders continue a three-game home stand Sunday versus Youngstown State.
