Sophomore guard Mark Alstork led Wright State men’s basketball team with 19 points and nine rebounds at the Nutter Center on Sunday, Jan. 24 as the Raiders defeated UIC 80-66 for head coach Billy Donlon’s 100th career win.
“Write about Mark Alstork, write about those players,” Donlon said. “Our players deserve an incredible amount of credit for what they’ve done.”
Alstork has been zoned in for the first-place Raiders recently with an average of 15.6 points per game during Wright State's five-game winning streak.
“We don’t want to lose at all,” Alstork said. “The winning streak matters but we just want to beat everybody.”
“He’s (Alstork) a great scorer and he can defend 1-4 on the other end,” senior guard JT Yoho said.
Yoho matched Alstork with seven field goals on the night and finished with 16 points. Senior guard Biggie Minnis collected 13 points while collecting five rebounds and dishing out six assists.
“We have so many guys who can go off of the dribble and create for others,” Yoho said. “We have so many things going for us and I think that’s what makes us hard to guard.”
The Flames found themselves up 17-11 after 7:37 with freshman forward Dikembe Dixson leading the way with six early points on 3-3 shooting. Dixson finished with a game-high 29 points.
“We came out a little flat,” Yoho said. “We played through some calls and played through some adversity.”
The lead would be UIC’s largest of the game as the Raiders fired back with a 17-2 run over the next five minutes.
After a three-pointer by Minnis gave the Raiders their largest lead of the half at 44-29, a free-throw by Julian Torres and a tip-in by Hassan Thomas with one second remaining made the score 44-32 at the half.
The Flames battled back after the break with a 10-5 run in the first 4:02 as Markese McGuire made a lay-up to cut the deficit to seven.
Alstork responded for the Raiders with back-to-back three pointers at the right wing within 20 seconds of each other to regain a 13-point advantage.
"He (Alstork) is having an All-Conference season right now," Donlon said.
After a tip-in by Dixson with 12:51 remaining cut the deficit to nine for the Flames, Wright State powered back with a 21-11 run to take a 78-59 lead with 3:28 remaining.
With a final score of 80-66, the Raiders completed their five-game home stand with a perfect 5-0 record for a 10-1 record at the Nutter Center this year.
Yoho commented on Donlon's 100th career win.
"I've played for him for all four of my years and to see him achieve that, it definitely means a lot to me," Yoho said.
"We got him a cookie cake," Alstork added.
Wright State (13-8; Horizon 7-1) will look to continue their winning streak as they begin a two-game road trip at Oakland (12-8, Horizon 4-3) on Friday, Jan. 29. Tip-off is at 7 p.m.
