Wright State marked its longest home losing streak in program history Sunday as the Raiders lost to last place Youngstown State 74-69 before a crowd of 5,005 in the Nutter Center.
The Raiders have lost five in a row and eight out of their last nine. WSU has lost five in a row in the Nutter Center, with its last home win coming on Jan. 2 versus Detroit.
Since then, frustration has mounted in the Wright State locker room, according to Wright State guard Grant Benzinger.
“We’re down right now,” Benzinger said.
The Raiders fall to 3-9 in conference play, tied for seventh in the league with Illinois-Chicago. Youngstown State is a game behind WSU and in last place in the Horizon League. The last two teams in the standings will have to travel in the first round of the Horizon League Championships next month.
“We realize we’re fighting for a first round home game and that would be awesome to have,” Benzinger said. “We want to win a couple of these next games to get it. But if not, we’re ready to go on the road and see if we can make a run.”
Benzinger led WSU’s scorers with 22 points along with a career-high seven rebounds. Michael Karena scored 14 points in a losing effort.
Youngstown State shot 56.9 percent for the game. Though Youngstown State has struggled to win games, the Penguins are 6-2 when holding opponents below 70 points.
Marcus Keene finished with 20 points and led the Penguins. Center Bobby Hain scored 14 points for YSU. Shawn Amiker added 13 for YSU.
While the Raiders trailed for most of the second half, down by as many as 10, WSU rallied to take a 69-68 lead with 2:13 left. From that point on, YSU closed the game on a 6-0 run and scored on its last three possessions.
“We could never get a critical stop in those last three minutes of the game,” Wright State head coach Billy Donlon said. “You have to credit Youngstown State. Amiker made some big time plays, credit him for his play and certainly Bobby Hain. I thought Bobby Hain was outstanding.”
Wright State led by as many as seven in the first half as Benzinger had eight of WSU’s first 10 minutes. But Keene and YSU got the lead back.
Youngstown State was on a 12-2 run when Grant Evans hit a 3 to end the run with 11:04 left in the first half to tie the game at 17. From that point, neither team led by as many as five in the half as Youngstown State 36-34 powered by 16 from Keene in the first.
After Wright State tied the game at 38 with 18:21 left, Youngstown State went on a 10-0 run before Karena snapped the run with 15:38 left. Sunday marked the second straight game WSU dug out of a double-digit hole in the second half.
“There is certainly character in there,” Donlon said. “They are resilient kids, but to be fair, we’re going to play a team against Oakland that if it is double figures, we won’t be able to come back.”
Donlon used eight players in Sunday’s game. He gave walk-on guard Daniel Collie his first career start. Collie played 23 minutes, marking his career high.
Donlon said he hopes that Chrishawn Hopkins will be able to return Wednesday after missing a pair of games with a possible concussion after a car crash last week.
