The Wright State men’s basketball team (7-5, 1-1 Horizon) were up by as many as 12 early on, but they ended up battling back and forth with the Marshall Thundering Herd (5-5) in the second half and ended up on the right side of the bed with an 88-79 win at the Nutter Center.
Wright State were up by as many as 15 at 37-22 with 1:19 left in the first half. Although they led for most of the first 36 minutes, Marshall refused to back down in the last four minutes and went on a 15-4 run thanks to five points each from both Obinna Anochili-Killen and Mikal Dawson, a game-tying three from Dezayne Mingo, and a go-ahead jumper by Jakob Gibbs. As a result, the Herd took the 78-76 lead with 2:34 remaining.
However, the Raiders ended the night on a 12-1 run thanks to seven points from Alex Huibregtse and six from Doumbia – who had a steal and a game-ending dunk to put the cream cheese on the bagel.
Brandon Noel finished the night with a game-high 21 points (14 in the first half) along with 10 rebounds, which was his second straight 20-plus point game and his third double-double of the season. Doumbia tallied 20 points on 8-of-10 shooting to go along with eight rebounds and three blocks, with 18 of his 20 points coming in the second half. Huibregtse tallied 12 points and was 3-of-6 on three-pointers, including nailing the game-clincher with 42 seconds. Keaton Norris filled up the statsheet again with seven points, five assists, and two steals. The Raiders bench scored 22 points, with Drey Carter chipping in 11 points and Solomon Callaghan with nine.
Wright State shot 57 percent overall from the field (31-of-54) and shot 44 percent from downtown (8-of-18), with five of those made shots from three-land coming in thr first half. Defensively, they held Marshall to 43.8 percent shooting from the field (28-for-64) and 36 percent from behind the arc (9-for-25), but Marshall hit seven shots from downtown in the second half.
The Raiders outrebounded the Thundering Herd 36-32 with 32 of those boards coming on the defensive side, while WSU also had 42 points in the paint.
Marshall was led by Dawson’s team-high 20 points on 8-of-16 field goal shooting; Mingo had 17 points, five rebounds and four assists; and Anochili-Killen and Cade Gibbs had 11 points each.
Up next: Wright State will be back at home next Wednesday night on December 18 to presume Horizon League play with the Youngstown State Penguins coming to the Nutter Center for a 7:00pm tip-off.
