Wright State men’s basketball team completed their regular season with a three-game winning streak after defeating Cleveland State 55-51 at Quicken Loans Arena on Saturday, Feb. 27.
Senior center Michael Karena found much success for the second straight game as he recorded a team-high 18 points after scoring a career-high 26 against Youngstown State on Thursday, Feb. 25.
“I think this is the best back-to-back games that Mike has played since he’s been at Wright State,” Raiders head coach Billy Donlon said.
Karena fell to the ground after making a dunk with 8:48 remaining and exited the game in pain. He checked back in four minutes later and gave the Raiders a 52-40 lead with 2:56 remaining after another dunk.
The Vikings (9-22; 4-14 Horizon) struck back with an 11-1 run as freshman guard Rob Edwards drew a foul on a made three-pointer to convert a four-point play with 16 seconds remaining; WSU led by two.
Sophomore guard Mark Alstork sank a pair of free-throws with six seconds left to close out the regular season.
“I thought we guarded really well when we needed to,” Donlon said. “We didn’t allow our bad offense to effect our defense, but we allowed our bad offense to effect our offense.”
Neither team got much going in the first half as the Vikings were scoreless in the first 2:50, but led 4-3 as each team only had one field goal in the opening 6:15.
Cleveland State gained a 10-3 lead after back-to-back three-pointers, but an 8-0 run by the Raiders put WSU ahead by one with 8:45 remaining in the half. After being tied at 13 with 6:30 remaining, WSU took control with a 20-18 lead with 3:16 remaining before gaining their largest lead of the half at 28-20 with 1:14 remaining. The halftime score was 28-22.
The Raiders (18-12; 13-5) went the first 4:47 without a field goal in the second half as the Vikings cut their deficit to four before freshman forward Daniel Mortensen drained back-to-back three-pointers for a 35-28 lead with 13:17 remaining.
Daniel Mortensen drains a three-point attempt.
“You’re always evaluating the shots you’re getting,” Donlon said. “I thought we got really quality shots until we built the lead.”
Guard Andre Yates sank a three with 12:45 remaining to cut the Raiders lead back down to four, but over the next six minutes Wright State took control with a 49-34 lead with 6:06 remaining.
Alstork finished with 11 points for WSU while Edwards recorded 20 and guard Kenny Carpenter with 13 for the Vikings.
Wright State will be back in action in the first round of the Horizon League Tournament at Calhan Hall in Detroit, Michigan at 5 p.m. The Raiders earned the third seed in which they will play either UIC (5-23; 3-14) or Cleveland State.
“It’s one game at a time in the tournament,” Donlon said. “We know know we have to win four games in order to go the the NCAA tournament. That’s what we have to do.”
“We’re going into this tournament with wins and we’re going to carry it all of the way to the NCAA,” Karena said.
