The No. 2 ranked scoring offense in the NCAA was too much for Wright State men’s basketball team to handle at the Nutter Center on Monday, Feb. 15 as the second place Oakland Golden Grizzlies powered by the Raiders 89-73.
“Give Oakland a lot of credit, they came in here and they just knocked us out. There’s no other way to put it,” Raiders head coach Billy Donlon said. “The disappointing thing for me, is that those guys played like their life was on the line, our guys didn’t. If we get another opportunity to play them again, that will be the number one thing that gets corrected.”
Oakland had five players score in double-figures as sophomore guard Martez Walker led the way with a game-high 22 points while making all four of his three-point attempts.
“Those guys were locked and loaded, every single one of them,” Donlon said. “They played with a very little margin of error and made every critical shot.”
With three games remaining in the regular season, Wright State (16-12; 10-5 Horizon) trails Oakland (19-9; 11-4) by one-game and will look for help from first-place Valparaiso, UIC and Detroit, as the Golden Grizzlies end their season with a tough three-game road trip. Oakland owns the tie-breaker over WSU after completing the season-sweep.
“When you’re losing you have to play with urgency more than the other team and today they wanted it more,” sophomore guard Mark Alstork said.
After falling behind 7-2 in the opening minutes, senior forward JT Yoho sank a three-pointer to spark a 7-0 run over the next 1:59, as WSU took their first lead (9-7) after back-to-back field goals by senior guard Biggie Minnis.
Oakland regained the lead 51 seconds later after guard Max Hooper drained a three-pointer and sparked an 11-3 run over the next 3:22, as the Golden Grizzlies led 18-12 with 11:17 remaining in the first half.
WSU battled back to tie the game at 22 and 25 over the next 4:51 before Walker sank a three to begin a 15-4 run by the Golden Grizzlies, as they led 40-29 with three minutes remaining in the half.
Yoho drained a jump-shot with 2:34 remaining in the half to kick-start a 10-2 run for the Raiders over the next 1:25. Walker sank a three-pointer with 33 seconds remaining for a halftime score of 45-39.
The Golden Grizzlies came out firing in the second half as senior center Percy Gibson sank a jump-shot just 28 seconds into the half to begin a 7-0 run over the first 1:48.
Hooper sank a three-pointer with 16:26 remaining to put Oakland up 16. One minute later, senior forward Joe Thomasson sank a three for WSU to spark an 8-0 run to cut the deficit in half before cutting it to six with 8:50 remaining.
Twelve seconds later, Gibson sank a jump-shot to begin a 14-2 run over the next 3:30 as Oakland gained a 20-point advantage and never looked back.
“There’s really nothing good out of this but I’m sure after we watch film there is something that we can learn from it and be better,” Thomasson said.
The Raiders will look to bounce back in their final home game of the season on Saturday, Feb. 20 as they host the Northern Kentucky Norse (9-16; 5-9 Horizon) at 7 p.m.
