On November 30th, the Raiders brought in the Air Force Falcons to kick of the inaugural Stars, Stripes, and Flight Classic. Hosted by Dayton Hoopla, one of the major entities that helps bring the First Four to UD Arena, Wright State worked hard to fill the stadium with as many people as they could for the event. Tickets were provided to local military members from the Wright Patterson Air Force Base and the game ended up being sold out a couple days before, a rare sight for the Raiders.
“A big thank you to our administration… when there’s that collaboration at the top of the university with our athletic department, I think great things can happen,” Sargent commented about the effort put through to put on the Classic.
Air Force entered Dayton with a 2-5 record with wins against Jacksonville State and Mercyhurst. Last time out, they lost a close match to Sacramento State. On the team, Ethan Taylor has been the consistent scoring presence for the squad with every one of his matches putting up double digit points.
The Raiders started off early gaining a double digit lead off of a stellar run by Alex Huibregtse, who went 6-6 from the arc before one miss knocked off his perfect streak on his career night. By halftime, the Raiders held a comfortable 36-23 lead, helped by the defense of Ethan Taylor by Solomon Callaghan and Logan Woods who held their lead scorer to 2 PTs.
Out of halftime, Brandon Noel came alive and put together an offensive effort that drove the Raiders further. After a game high 21 PT lead early in the second, the Falcons began to try and push through the Raiders lead, but they would get no closer than 13 as the Raiders kept them at arms length.
Noel and Huibregtse ended the night with 23 and 20 PTs respectively, putting together the majority of the Raiders points on the night and closely followed by Michael Imariagbe, who went a perfect 6-6 from the floor and 14 PTs total.
“I want bigger, better, brighter things in all ways, and I know the main key to that is us winning, but nights like that where we can get [that many people] in there and impress … I thought our guys played well,” Sargent replied about the future.
The Stars, Stripes and Flight Classic was a fantastic event put on through the collaboration of many different entities to bring an exciting match to the Nutter Center. The reported attendance of 9,672 was one of the Nutter Center’s highest ever for a basketball match, just shy of the matches against Butler while it was still the local heavyweight. It left me a little nostalgic for a game I hold dearly in my heart, so if you’re willing to indulge me, follow me back in time for a moment.
The year is 2013 and a young Blake Schumaker was in their first year in college.
The high school I went to was, to put it bluntly, not good at sports. We were consistently getting steamrolled in basketball and football, so I never felt any sort of attachment to the hometown team when it came to sports. Instead, I’d just play my trumpet for the marching band and move along.
When it came time to select a college, I made Wright State last on my priority list – wanting to get away from home was a huge motivator for me and it didn’t have a marching band, the one activity I did enjoy immensely. That did not come to pass, Wright State offered me more in financial aid than any other school and, being a frugal kid raised under a family business, there was no reason for me to say no to such an advantage. I did get to live in the dorms away from home, but a little bit of the luster was lost knowing I was a short car trip away.
I was not athletic in any sense, but I did like to play my instrument at the time so I joined the Wright State Pep Band. It was something for me to do at Wright State that kept me involved and active, a piece of advice that the orientation people slammed into our heads, and I enjoyed playing my instrument so I thought why not, couldn’t hurt. I learned some more modern, jaunty stand tunes and the time came for my first home game of the season against Mount St. Joseph.
The game was electric, AJ Pacher and JT Yoho were on fire throughout the night and Steven Davis brought an exciting paint play I had never seen before. All the while, the Pep Band was loudly cheering alongside the cheerleaders to the front of us and the student section to our right, one of the best in my memory, was rowdy and eager. I was enthralled by the Raiders on the court and intoxicated by the spirit of the game that the student side of the stadium was creating. The Reds baseball games that my father had taken me to had nothing on this!
Fast forward to the end of the season and it was time for the Raiders, as well as the Pep Band and Cheer Team, to go to #1 Green Bay for the Horizon League Championships. My high school band had never traveled with the team before so it was completely novel to me that the Pep Band was able to make the trip with the team. Additionally, I had never been out west of Ohio before, especially not an 8 hour drive out west. When we finally arrived in the frigid cold of Green Bay with eight inches of snow still on the ground, we threw our stuff into the hotel and made our way to the stadium for the second round match.
Wright State played Oakland in the second round and Cleveland State in the semis, finishing off both opponents. After two exciting matches, the Pep Band went back into the hotel buzzing with excitement. Wright State had made the finals the past year and got stuffed by Valparaiso, but this year that same road block was defeated by Milwaukee. While Green Bay would’ve been a tough task without a doubt as the one seed, the matches that we played against them were close affairs. The Horizon League title felt like it was in reach for the Raiders, but we would have to play the Phoenix to the death on their court to do it.
And then the news started pouring in. Milwaukee was going to overtime with their regional rival. A few minutes later, Green Bay had been ousted by the fifth seed.
The Horizon League Championship was coming home.
The Pep Band was hyped, with all of us jumping up and down and frantically whispering to each other in the hotel hallway about what the plan was going to be. Do we leave now? Are they actually sending this game back to the Nutter Center? Some members of the team even joined us in the celebration. After the band director filled us in, we tucked in for the night and hopped on the bus in the morning. That Tuesday, everyone available was asked to report to the Nutter Center for the finals.
I will never forget the atmosphere of that game. The Nutter Center was packed to the brim with 7,784 excited Wright State fans and it was absolutely deafening in the stadium. It was an eye-opening experience to be in the presence of such a crowd, all of whom were loudly cheering for the team and reacting to the game. Clutch shots brought the stadium to a fever pitch, and down moments were responded with boos. If my memory serves right, the Pep Band was able to get the crowd to start trash-talking Matt Tiby, a Milwaukee player the students had been messing with during the season. In a furious back and forth with the Panthers, the Raiders were not able to bring the trophy home but kept the Nutter Center abuzz with the crowd it had created.
I knew right then that college basketball was special and fell in love with the sport from that point onward.
Nowadays, with the post-COVID world making people more recluse than before and attendance overall at sports competitions dwindling, it’s special when the Nutter Center is able to reach the capacity it had been built to accommodate. The shared excitement of a fierce competition is made even greater when it feels like the stadium itself is on the edge of its seat. My hope for all of college basketball, but especially the Raiders, is for there to be more games like the Stars, Stripes, and Flight Classic to bring about that electricity that you can only get in a packed stadium.
