This past weekend, the Wright State Raiders men’s basketball squad competed in an eight-team tournament called the Myrtle Beach Invitational at the HTC Center in Conway, South Carolina, and let’s just say that all three of their games have been tales of different outcomes. Ironically, Wright State’s first two opponents in this tournament were picked to win their respective conferences.
In the quarterfinals on Thursday, they dominated 3-time defending Ivy League Regular Season Champion Princeton 80-61 from start to finish as Clint Sargent’s squad looked like they didn’t know how to miss. They shot 53.1 percent from the field (26/49), 52.2 percent from beyond the arc (12/23), and 80 percent from the charity stripe (16/20). However, they also committed 14 turnovers as opposed to Princeton with seven.
Brandon Noel led the charge with 27 points (7/11 FG, 11/11 FT), 9 rebounds, 3 blocks, and 3 steals; Logan Woods put up a career-high in points with 18 and shot 5-of-6 from downtown; Alex Huibregtse (10 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists) and Keaton Norris (11 points, 5 rebounds, 8 assists) flirted with triple-doubles; and Jack Doumbia had a near double-double off the bench (8 points, 11 rebounds).
Defensively, they shut down the Ivy League Preseason Player of the Year in Caden Pierce (6 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists). But they couldn’t stop Xaivian Lee, who was the only Tiger in double-figure scoring with 14.
In the semifinal round on Friday, Wright State lost a close one 77-74 to another good squad in Bradley out of the Missouri Valley. The Braves were up 35-30 with 1:54 left in the first half, but the Raiders took the 37-35 halftime lead by scoring seven unanswered points which ended with a buzzer-beating layup by Woods.
Late in the second half, Noel tied it up at 71 with 2:25 to go after an offensive rebound off a missed 3-pointer by Huibregtse. But with 1:32 to go, Zek Montgomery hit the go-ahead 3-pointer from the corner to give the Braves the lead for good and they ended up with the 77-74 win.
Noel led all scorers with 26 points (10/16 FG, 3/4 3-PT FG) and Huibregtse with 13 of his own (5/12 FG). Doumbia replaced Michael Imariagbe in the starting lineup and finished with 16 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists and 4 steals.
Five Braves scored in double-figures led by Montgomery with 19, Almar Atlason with 12, Darius Hannah (7 rebounds, 5 steals) and Ahmet Jonovic (YAWN-oh-VITCH) each had 11, and Missouri Valley Preseason Player of the Year Duke Deen only had 10.
Wright State shot 51.9 percent from the field (27/52), 47.4 percent from beyond the arc (9/19), and 73.3 percent from the charity stripe (11/15). However, they did only turn the ball over nine times, while Bradley had 11 of their own.
Sunday afternoon in the third-place game, it was a green and gold battle as Wright State squared off against the South Florida Bulls, who were picked to finish third in the American Athletic Conference preseason polls. The Bulls scored the first four points of the day and were up 7-5 early before the Raiders took a big 20-7 lead by scoring 15 unanswered points with Solomon Callaghan scoring 8 of his 10 first-half points in that stretch. They were up by 13 on another occasion in the first half, but went to the locker room only up by two at 34-32 after USF went on a 10-4 run in the last 3:39 of the same half with highlight dunks from Kobe Knox and Corey Walker, Jr.
In the early stages of the second half, the Bulls were up 41-36 with 17:54 left to play after going on a 7-0 run with Knox scoring five of those points in the process.
Later on, the Raiders trailed 67-65 with 4:02 left after Callaghan made a pair of clutch free throws. After that, it was a defensive battle as both teams held each other without a point for the last 3:10 of that stretch until Jamille Reynolds woke up the building with a double-handed poster dunk on Jack Doumbia, making it 69-65 Bulls with 51 seconds left. Then, Norris hit his trademark rainbow three from the left wing to make it a one-point deficit at 69-68 with 44 seconds to go before Jayden Reid traded layups with Doumbia from one end to another to make it 71-70. Then, USF turned it ove after Kasen Jennings over threw an alley-oop pass over the head of Knox. Moments later, Doumbia hit a stepback shot from the foul line to give WSU the 72-71 lead with 6.8 left. Reid then took the ball down the court and hit the game-winning shot over Norris as time expired to give USF the 73-72 victory.
The Raider bench on Sunday scored 37 of the team’s 72 points on the day. Doumbia led everyone with 18 points (9/11 FG) and 10 rebounds, while Callaghan had 15 of own and shot 3-of-5 from beyond the arc. Huibregtse finished with 12 and Norris with 10. Noel was pretty much shut down this game, finishing with five points and six rebounds while missing three of his six free throw attempts.
Reid led USF with 14 points (6/9 FG), and Knox dropped 10 of his own; while Reynolds finished with 13 points, 14 rebounds and a trio of blocks.
Wright State shot 44 percent (27-of-62) and 33 percent (8-of-24) from downtown, while USF connected at a better 53 percent (29-of-55) overall and also hit 33 percent (5-of-15) of their three-pointers.
Up next: Wright State will be back at home on Saturday, November 30 hosting Air Force for a 7:00pm ET/5:00pm MT start.
