The No. 12 Xavier Musketeers were too much for Wright State men’s basketball team to handle on Tuesday, Dec. 8 as the Raiders fell 90-55.
“They are a very very good team,” Raiders head coach Billy Donlon said. “What I respected about them is they never changed their emotion. From an emotional standpoint they played like pros.”
Sophomore Trevon Bluiett led all players with a game and career-high 22 points for the Musketeers while Senior center Michael Karena led the Raiders with 10 points.
The score was 6-8 after 4: 42 but the Musketeers caught fire and the Raiders fell cold as Xavier went on a 27-0 run in the next 9:07.
“The looks we got are shots that we’ve made all year long. Tonight we just didn’t make them,” Donlon said.
The Raiders barely cut the lead with a 12-7 run but allowed a 9-3 run by the Musketeers which made for a 49-21 halftime score. Xavier collected 15 offensive rebounds in the half and sank 18 of 22 free throw attempts.
Not much changed in the second half with the Musketeers going on a 17-6 run in the first 4:50 to take a 66-27 lead.
The Raiders never got much going as Karena fouled out with 10:02 remaining and sophomore guard Grant Benzinger joined him on the bench 30 seconds later after collecting his fifth foul.
“It certainly hurt,” Donlon said. “This was the first night for us where Mike was finishing his shots down low.”
Xavier held their largest lead of 43 points with 5:29 remaining in the second half; the largest deficit for the Raiders this season.
“I’m not upset with our guys, credit Xavier,” Donlon said. “We’ll bounce back”
Wright State (3-6) will be back in action on Sunday, Dec.13 at Miami (OH) (4-4) at 7 p.m.
