Wright State Men Snaps 3-Game Losing Skid; Raider Women Drop 9th Straight

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Photos courtesy of Wright State Athletics

The Wright State men’s and women’s basketball teams kicked off 2025 by resuming conference play against teams from the state of Wisconsin in hopes of snapping losing streaks. While one team passed the test, the other failed it miserably.

Back at home in Dayton with the men’s game, it was a battle of first-year head coaches between WSU’s Clint Sargent and Green Bay’s Doug Gottlieb with Sargent’s squad coming out on top at the Nutter Center.

Wright State (8-8, 2-3 Horizon) snapped a 3-game losing streak after picking up just their second win in conference play in a 74-51 route over a last place Green Bay Phoenix team (2-14, 0-5 Horizon) that have now lost 11 games in a row – which is now 3 losses shy of tying the school record (14).

Early in the 1st half, Green Bay took the 10-9 lead on back-to-back buckets from Jeremiah Johnson and Foster Wonders before Brandon Noel’s 3-point play to make it 12-10 WSU. Mac Wrecke then hit a free throw to make it a one-point deficit, but the green and gold never trailed again as they went on a 18-0 run by hitting 4 of their last made 7 shots from downtown and took a 35-20 halftime lead into the locker room. In the 2nd half, UWGB only cut the deficit down closer to within 12, but WSU went on another 9-0 run and led by as many as 28 before the Phoenix scored the last 5 points of the night.

Brandon Noel led all scorers with 20 points (7-of-12 FG), Logan Woods had a near-triple double (14 points, 5 rebounds, 5 assists), 11 points for Jack Doumbia, and 6 points and 12 rebounds for Michael Imariagbe.

The biggest surprise of the night came from Andrea Holden (on-DRAY), the freshman from Hamilton, which is 48 minutes from Dayton in driving distance. Originally supposed to redshirt the year, the 6-6 freshman swingman made his NCAA debut a memorable one as he came off the bench and filled up the stat sheet with 11 points, 7 rebounds, 2 steals, and 2 blocks.

Johnson, another freshman, was the only Phoenix player to score in double-figures with 14; while Preston Ruedinger contributed with 8 points and 3 steals.

Yonatan Levy, a 23-year old 6-9 freshman from Israel, made his NCAA debut as well and finished with 5 points and 6 rebounds off the bench. Levy, who played overseas last season for Hapoel Eilat in the Israeli Basketball Premier League, was added to the Phoenix’s active roster before the game after being ruled eligible last month.

Wright State outscored Green Bay 40-28 in the paint and outrebounded the opposition 41-29.

Wright State shot 48 percent overall from the field (29-of-60), 38 percent on 3-pointers (8-of-21) and 67 percent at the stripe (8-of-12) all while dishing 20 assists.

Green Bay shot 35 percent overall from the field (19-of-54) after they made just 28 percent of their first half shots (7-of-25). They also shot an abysmal 19 percent from downtown (4-of-21) and 69 percent on free throws (9-of-13).

Meanwhile up in Milwaukee with the women’s game, it was a battle of the bottom two teams in the Horizon League as the woes of Wright State women’s team continued with 75-50 blowout loss on the road at the hands of the Wisconsin-Milwaukee Panthers.

Wright State had an early 7-2 advantage, but consecutive 3-point makes by Jada Donaldson and Peppler gave UWM the 8-7 lead. Later on in the period, former Raider Kacee Baumhower drilled a 3-pointer of her own as the Panthers were up 14-11 and never relinquished the lead again. Wisconsin-Milwaukee ended the 1st quarter on a 10-0 run and were up 24-13.

In the 2nd quarter, Milwaukee scored 13 unanswered points and were up by as many as 22. They even held WSU without a point for 9:10 and also held the Raiders without a single field goal for the period’s first 9:50. Thanks to the Panthers’ stifling defense on the Raiders, Kyle Rechlicz’s black and gold crew up were up 37-17 at recess. In the 1st half alone, Milwaukee shot 60 percent from the field (9-of-15) and 66.7 percent on 3-pointers (6-of-9).

Kari Hoffman’s Raiders scored 14 points in the 3rd quarter, but the Panthers were ready to pounce almost every single time and had a 55-29 lead with 2:38 to go in the period. Wright State cut the lead down to no more than 17 in the 4th and that was pretty much the cream cheese on the bagel.

Amaya Staton led the Raiders with her 4th double-double of the season: 18 points (8-of-16 FG), 11 rebounds and 3 blocks. Makiya Miller contributed with 2 points, 8 rebounds and 4 assists; along with 11 points for Macie Taylor and 9 points for Lauren Scott.

Wright State outrebounded Wisconsin-Milwaukee 44-41 with 21 of those boards on the offensive glass, but WSU connected on just 26 percent on their shots (19-of-73) from the field along with 14.3 percent (4-of-28) from downtown and 66.7 percent from the line (8-of-12).

Baumhower, who transferred from WSU to UWM at the end of last season, scored 18 points and was 3-of-4 from downtown; while Kamy Peppler finished with 11 points and 11 assists. Jorey Buwalda with 12 points, 8 rebounds and 2 blocks off the bench; while Donaldson and Izzy Pugh had 9 points each.

Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s field goal percentage was 45.5 percent (25-of-55), and they also made 44.8 percent of their 3-pointers (13-of-29) and 80 percent of their free throws (12-of-15). The Panthers bench also outscored the Raiders bench 28-8.

WSU has now lost their 9th straight game – which is the 9th-longest losing streak in school history, while Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s win snaps their 7-game losing skid.

Up next for Wright State:
– The women’s team will stay up north and visit the Wisconsin-Green Bay Phoenix, the defending Horizon League Tournament Champions, on Saturday, January 3 at 2ET/1CT at the Kress Events Center.
– The men’ team will have a week off until they host the Oakland Golden Grizzlies, the defending undisputed Horizon League Champions, on Thursday, January 7ET at the Nutter Center.

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