Wright State men’s basketball team travels to Milwaukee for their first Horizon League match-up of the season with the 9-4 Panthers on Saturday, Jan. 2.
“Milwaukee is very very good, their starters all average double-figures,” Raiders head coach Billy Donlon said. “I think it’ll be half-court oriented. Kind of grind it out with a physical style of play.”
The Panthers have five players averaging double-digit points this season: seniors Matt Tiby (15.3) and J.J. Panoske (10.5) and juniors Akeem Springs (13.2), Austin Arians (12.5) and Jordan Johnson (10.7).
“They’ve got great experience,” Donlon said. “They’re big; they shoot the three incredibly well, they don’t foul very often and they get fouled a lot.”
The Raiders (6-7) have won three straight games after falling to Miami (OH) 72-67 on Sunday, Dec. 13 with senior guard JT Yoho leading the pack with 17 points per game off of the bench.
“I do think we played really well before the break,” Donlon said. “We didn’t just win three games in a row, we did it in a dominant fashion.”
The Panthers have won five of their last six games coming off of a 74-65 victory over Minnesota (6-7) on Wednesday, Dec. 23. All players averaging double-digit points for the Panthers did so with Johnson leading the team with 19 points, 10 assists and nine rebounds, followed by Springs with 15 points and seven rebounds.
Milwaukee is 3-1 at home this year and defeated Wright State twice last season by scores of 67-41 and 61-58.
“We’ve been hit or miss when we go there in my 10 years,” Donlon said. “Sometimes we play really well and sometimes we don’t.”
Senior center Michael Karena averaged 13 points per game in the match-ups with 11 points in the first game and 15 in the second. Sophomore guard Grant Benzinger was the only other Raider to score double-digits in either game with 11 points in the second match-up.
Tiby averaged 18 points per game in the match-ups with a 24 point game and a 12 point game. Springs collected 13 rebounds in the first match-up and scored nine points in each game.
The game will be available on ESPN 3 and Time Warner. Tip-off will be at 4 p.m.
