Final scores
– Women’s game: Florida Atlantic 68, Wright State 52
– Men’s game: Eastern Michigan 86, Wright State 82
December 21 of every year is known as World Basketball Day and it happens exactly 4 days before Christmas Day, but the Grinch came along and stole gifts from the trees of the green and gold squads as they ended up losing on the exact same day for the second time this week within a 4-day span on Saturday afternoon.
The Raider women have suffered their 7th straight loss, while the Raider men have now lost back-to-back games. It marks the first time since the 2022-23 season that both of the Raider squads have lost on the same day on two different occasions.
Up first was the women’s team (2-11, 0-3 Horizon), who were in Phoenix, AZ for the last part of a four-day, three-game event called “The GCU Women’s Basketball Have Fayth Christmas Classic” at the Global Union Credit Arena. Unfortunately, they went winless in the event after suffering an 68-52 loss at the hands of the Florida Atlantic Owls (8-5) in the first-ever meeting between both programs.
Early on in the 1st quarter, the score was tied up 3 times and the lead changed 4 times. Wright State took the 9-8 on back-to-back buckets from Lauren Scott and Claire Henson, but Jada Moore hit a pair of free throws to put FAU up 10-9 and the Owls would never relinquish the lead again.
From near the end of the 1st quarter through the middle of the 2nd quarter, the Owls went “hoot, hoot and away” with this one as they held Wright State without a single point for 7:25 all while scoring 19 unanswered points, with Perry scoring 9 of those 19 points. Just like that, Jennifer Sullivan’s Owls had their biggest lead of the day at 22 with a huge 35-13 advantage halfway through quarter #2. The Raider women only trimmed the deficit to within 11 twice in the middle of the 4th quarter and never got closer than that.
Florida Atlantic played without freshman 6th woman Erin Rodgers, who got injured in Thursday’s 81-60 loss against tournament host Grand Canyon.
Amaya Staton, the only graduate student on the WSU women’s squad, was the only Raider that scored in double-figures with 10 points on 5-of-12 shooting to go along with 8 rebounds and a block. Henson finished with 7 points and 8 rebounds; Makiya Miller had 7 points, 6 rebounds and 3 assists; 6 points, 3 assists and a pair of steals for Macie Taylor; and 5 points each for Scott and Ellie Magestro-Kennedy.
The biggest surprise came from freshman Florrie Cotterill, who hails from Lee-on-the-Solent, England. After Cotterill only averaged 4.5 minutes and 0.8 points in her first 10 games played, head coach Kari Hoffman decided to let the English bulldog out of her cage and Cotterill made the most of her opportunity, scoring a career-high 8 points while making 4 of her 6 shots from the field in just 12 minutes off the bench.
Moore led all scorers with 20 points on 8-of-15 shooting along with 7 rebounds, 4 assists, a block, and a pair of steals. Perry chipped in 19 points of her own on 8-of-17 field goal attempts; 9 points, 8 rebounds and a pair of steals for Cincinnati transfer Ta’Ziah Jenks; and Georgia transfer Stefanie Ingram flirted with a near triple-double (7 points, 5 rebounds and 6 assists).
Grand Canyon sho 3rd quarter and shot a staggering 71.4 percent on field goals in that period (10-of-14), while Wright State only cut the deficit down to 10 in the 4th and it was as close as they would get.
Florida Atlantic finished with 40 of their 68 points in the paint and had 12 of those points on 19 Raider turnovers, but FAU also turned the ball over 20 times themselves. They shot an overall 43.8 percent from the field (28-of-64), 23.5 percent from 3-point territory (4-of-17), and 80 percent on free throws (8-of-10). In the 4th, they made 61.54 percent of their shots from the field (8-of-13).
Wright State shot poorly overall at 31.7 percent from the field (20-of-63) and 11.1 percent from downtown (2-of-18), but they did great at the charity stripe again at 90.9 percent (10-of-11).
Note: It was the second-time ever that former Reynoldsburg High School teammates Miller and Perry have played against each other on the college level. The first time they squared off in college was on November 22, 2023 as freshmen when Perry was at Ohio State, with the Buckeyes blowing out the Raiders 103-52 in Columbus.
Here is a YouTube video of them as teammates:
Later on that afternoon, the men’s team and head coach Clint Sargent (7-7, 1-2 Horizon) went up to Ypsilanti, MI for a matchup with the Eastern Michigan Eagles (6-5) in the first-ever meeting between these two schools as well.
Both teams were going back and forth for most of the first half, and the game was tied at 27 after EMU’s Trey Pettigrew completed a 3-point play with 3:27 to go in the first session, but WSU ended the half on an 11-0 with Norfolk State transfer Jack Doumbia scoring 6 of those points as the green and gold had the big 38-27 lead at halftime.
Wright State was up 40-31 early in the 2nd half, but Eastern Michigan started flying like Eagles and took the 42-40 lead on an 11-0 run of their own thanks to 9 consecutive points from Jalen Terry (back-to-back 3-balls and a free throw) and a layup by Da’Sean Nelson. The game was tied again at 60 all until Doumbia broke up the tie with a 3-point play of his own as WSU led 63-60, but EMU went back on top thanks to a clutch 3-pointer from Terry and a pair of free throws made by Nelson. Just like that, Stan Heath’s Eagles led 65-63 and never trailed in the game again.
EMU was up 84-77 with 57 seconds left in the game, but WSU scored 5 of the last 6 points with free throws from Doumbia and a big-time 3-point shot from Logan Woods as the green and gold trailed 85-82. 10 seconds later, Alex Huibregtse stole the ball from Terry, but the Raiders missed 3 consecutive potential game-tying 3-point shots: first one from Solomon Callaghan, then Woods, followed by Huibregtse. Pettigrew then pulled down the rebound, got fouled by Callaghan, and made one free throw to put the cream cheese on the bagel 🥯 and give EMU the 86-82 comeback victory. The win for the Eagles snapped their 3-game losing streak.
Wright State shot a solid 51.7 percent from the field (31-of-60), 41.2 percent from downtown (7-of-17), and also hit 81.3 percent of their foul shots (13-of-16). They also committed only 9 turnovers and had 17 points off 15 EMU turnovers.
Eastern Michigan (6-5) shot an even 50 percent from the floor (29-of-58), 39.1 percent on 3-pointers (9-of-23), and 73.1 percent on free throws (19-of-26). They also won the rebound battle 36-25 and had 27 second chance points.
Doumbia led WSU with 21 points on 7-of-9 field goal shooting and 7-of-9 foul shooting along with 4 steals, but he turned the ball over 6 times. Brandon Noel finished with 17 points and also shot 7-of-9 from the field. Huibregtse scored 15 points on 4-of-9 shots from downtown, dished out 6 assists and even had 4 steals as well. Woods finished with 10 points and hit 4 of his 7 shot attempts. Callaghan scored 7 points and started in place of Keaton Norris, who sat out Saturday’s game with a thigh bruise.
The top two scorers for this game from EMU were Nelson and Terry, the transfers from DePaul. Nelson finished with 27 points (9-of-14 FG, 9-of-11 FT) and 13 rebounds, while Terry dropped 21 points of his own and shot 6-of-10 from beyond the arc. Christian Henry and Yusuf Jihad finished with 11 points each, while Arne Osojnik scored 8 points off the bench.
Up next: both teams will return to Horizon League play next weekend following the Christmas holiday.
– The women will head home and play the Purdue-Fort Wayne Mastodons on Saturday, December 28 at 2pm ET/1pm CT at the Nutter Center.
– The men will stay on the road and head down south to face the Cleveland State Vikings on Sunday, December 29 at 3pm ET at Henry J. Goodman Arena.
