Trailing by 13 early in the first half, the Wright State Raiders men’s basketball team turned it into Comeback City with a huge second half rally and finished the night on a 12-4 run that resulted in a 66-62 win over the Oakland Golden Grizzlies on Thursday night at the Nutter Center. It’s the second straight victory on home court for WSU (9-8, 3-3 Horizon), while it’s the second consecutive loss for the Golden Grizzlies (5-12, 2-4 Horizon).
Oakland’s Isaiah Jones scored the first four points of the game while the Grizzlies’ defense held the Raiders scoreless point for the first 3:11. Wright State immediately made it a one-point game at 6-5 following a three from Keaton Norris, but Malcolm Christie countered with a three-ball of his own before a Jack Doumbia layup made it 9-7. Then, the Grizzlies went up 19-7 thanks to a 10-0 run with four separate players scoring in that 2:17 span. Moments later, Jones’ three-point play grew Oakland’s lead up to 13 at 22-9. The defense held Wright State without a single point for the next 3:57 until WSU’s Brandon Noel scored the next four points and cut the deficit down to single-digits, but Buru Naivalurua made a free throw with 6:25 left in the first half and got the lead back up to 10. Both squads didn’t do much on offense as Wright State only outscored Oakland 14-6 for the last 10 minutes of the half, but the Golden Grizzlies were still up 28-23 at halftime.
The green and gold made it a one-point game at 35-34 with 16:19 left thanks to Norris and Alex Huibregtse hitting back-to-back treys, and the teams starting trading points before Isaiah Jones hit a huge triple to give the Grizzlies a six-point lead at 43-40. However, WSU went on a 8-0 for their first lead of the night at 45-43 that was capped off with a pair of free throws from Doumbia, but Cooper Craggs scored the next five points to give Oakland the lead back at 50-45.
Moments later, the Raiders retook a one-point lead at 53-52 after another made three-point shot from Norris with 6:49 left. Both teams would turn up the defensive pressure as they were only seven points combined for the next 4:04 right before Allen Mukeba (moo-KAY-buh) knotted it back up at 56 all with 2:45 to go.
There were a total of five lead changes and six ties near the end of the evening. It was a 58-58 tie until Huibregtse got fouled by Jaylen Jones on a three-point attempt and hit three big foul shots for a 61-58 advantage with 1:31 remaining. Moments later, Naivalurua tied it again at 61 with a three-point play following a foul from Andrea Holden. Doumbia then hit a shot from mid-range with 33 seconds on the clock to make it 63-61 before Naivalurua and Noel exchange foul shots for a 64-62 game. Doumbia then deflected Jayson Woodrich’s eventual alley-oop pass to cause a huge turnover. Norris was credited with the steal, got fouled by Naivalurua, and knocked down a pair of free throws at the other end to put the cream cheese on the bagel.
Norris, who missed the Raiders’ last three games with a thigh bruise, came back with a vengeance and put up the best scoring performance of his collegiate career. He scored a career-high of 14 points while hitting 4-of-6 shots from beyond the arc to go along with four assists and a pair of steals.
Huibregtse scored 11 points of his own while hitting a pair of threes; eight points, four rebounds and three assists for Noel; and six points for Michael Imariagbe.
The Raider bench came up big again as they outscored the Golden Grizzlies’ bench 27-12. Doumbia scored 10 of his 16 points in the second half, shot 7-of-10 from the field and pulled down six rebounds. Holden continued to provide energy with his first-career double-double in just his second NCAA game, recording 11 points and 11 rebounds.
Wright State finished shooting 45.3 percent overall from the field (24-of-53), 30.4 percent from downtown (7-of-23), and 78.6 percent from the foul line (11-of-14). Ironically, Clint Sargent’s squad hit six of their seven made three-bombs in the second half.
Greg Kampe’s Golden Grizzlies shot a poor 40.4 percent from the field (23-of-57), 22.7 percent of their three-point tries (5-of-22), and 57.9 percent from the charity stripe (11-of-19) all despite winning the rebound battle 36-32.
Oakland, the defending undisputed Horizon League Champions, had three players score in double figures: 16 points and eight rebounds plus two steals for Naivalurua, 13 points and nine rebounds with two steals for Mukeba, and 10 points and five rebounds for Isaiah Jones.
Up next:
Wright State will hit the road for a trip up northeast to Moon Township, PA for a conference matchup with Robert Morris on Sunday, January 12 at 2ET at the UPMC Events Center.
