Wright State men’s basketball completed their regular season with a 19-12 overall record and a 13-5 conference record for the third seed in the Horizon League Tournament beginning on Saturday, Mar. 5.
After finishing the season on a three-game winning streak, the Raiders will face the tenth seeded UIC Flames (5-24; 3-15 Horizon) in Detroit. The Flames defeated WSU 64-59 in Chicago on Feb. 11, but the series was split as the Raiders won 80-66 at the Nutter Center in Jan.
Senior center Michael Karena ended the season with a hot-hand after recording a career-high 26 points at Youngstown State on Feb. 25 while averaging 20.3 points per game during the last three games.
Karena will be matched up against sophomore center Tai Odiase who averaged 15.5 points per game against WSU while recording seven blocks in their last meeting.
Senior Forward Joe Thomasson was recognized by the league by receiving the conference All-Defensive team. Thomasson made many key plays on defense for the Raiders this season including a game-closing steal in the final 30 seconds against Northern Kentucky on senior night.
Thomasson and the Raiders will look to contain freshman forward Dikembe Dixson who averaged 19.9 points per game on the season and 27.5 against WSU. In the last match-up he was one rebound shy of a second double-double against the Raiders, but turned the ball over 16 times between both games.
Sophomore guard Mark Alstork found success against the Flames with an average of 17 points per game against them; he averaged a team-high 12.6 points per game on the season.
If Wright State wins they will face the winner of Youngstown State (11-20; 6-12 Horizon) and the tournament host Detroit (15-14; 9-9 Horizon).
Tip-off of Wright State vs. UIC will be at 5 p.m.
