After two consecutive weekend splits, Wright State would return home for a crucial series against Cleveland State.
The Vikings would come into the weekend undefeated in conference play at 8-0, their best start in Horizon League history.
Wright State would play their second straight Friday night nationally televised game.
Cleveland State would start the night off well, going on a 5-0 run, keeping the Raiders scoreless for the first two and a half minutes. Wright State would answer with a 9-0 one themselves, led by four in a row by Loudon Love. He would finish the night with a quiet 14 points and 8 rebounds.
The Vikings would answer that run with one of their own, as the rest of the half was low scoring. It would be tied at halftime, 27-27.
At that break, Cleveland State had taken 17 more shots than the Raiders, due to turnovers and a lack of rebounding.
“It was an absolute miracle the score was tied at half,” stated Scott Nagy postgame, “I don’t know if I’ve ever seen that. Seventeen more shots.”
Coming out of the half, the teams would trade the first eight points before a 7-3 Raider run would give Wright State a 40-34 lead at the under-16 media timeout.
It would stay on the Raiders side until the under-8 media timeout, where the game really started to become a battle. Cleveland State would cut the lead down to three, and ultimately take the lead with a Deante Johnson dunk with 5:32 to go.
The teams would trade buckets all the way until the last minute. Al Eichelberger was hitting crazy shots for the Vikings, as Loudon Love did everything in his will to keep the Raiders in the game.
Cleveland State would regain the lead with 21.6 seconds remaining, giving the Raiders one last possession to tie it up.
Tim Finke would find an open shot with about eight seconds left, and it would bounce off the rim, right into Tanner Holden’s hands to tie it up.
After, for the second week in a row, Wright State would lose at the buzzer on national television. D’Moi Hodge would trip up Loudon Love, throwing up an alley-oop to Deante Johnson for the win. Another rough loss for the Raiders.
Scott Nagy would take all the blame, again, saying postgame, “I just made a big mistake, told the players it was completely my fault. When we scored, I should’ve called a timeout.”
The Raiders would give over 17 turnovers in comparison to the Vikings 9. They also shot 7% better than Cleveland State.
Grant Basile led the way for Wright State on Friday, scoring 15. Holden and Finke each scored double digits, as well.
As has happened in all these series, the Raiders would try to blowout the Vikings in game two after a close game in game one.
It would start that way for the Raiders on Saturday, as they opened to a 10-2 run. They would build upon that, handing Cleveland State their largest deficit of the year, at the half, 42-22.
The Raiders kept Cleveland State to a dreadful 28% from the field, as Finke and Holden each had 11 points and 6 rebounds at the half for the Raiders. Holden only had three shots yesterday.
“It was hard for me to sleep last night,” stated Holden postgame.
It would be much easier for him to sleep on Saturday night, as he scored 23.
Wright would dominate in the second half as well, winning by a final score of 85-49. Although their shooting was not great, the Raiders kept the Vikings to 27.9% from the field, and 3-14 from three. The Raiders also took 29 more free throws than CSU.
The win was Scott Nagy’s 100th at Wright State. Finke, Basile, and Love each scored double digits as well.
