The Wright State men’s basketball team (10-11, 4-6 Horizon) couldn’t weather the storm in their 95-79 home loss against the Milwaukee Panthers at the Nutter Center. Clint Sargent’s crew have fallen to eighth place in the Horizon League standings.
Both squads started the night trading back-to-back 5-0 runs before trading baskets back and forth. After WSU went up 21-18 courtesy of back-to-back free throws from Logan Woods, Kentrell Pullian tied it up at 21 with a three-ball before the green and gold went on a 7-0 run to make it 28-21 with 5:58 remaining in the first half. The Panthers pounced with six unanswered points to make it a one-point deficit at 28-27 and eventually went up 40-32 after an 11-0 run that went a minute and 44 seconds. The Raiders scored four of the last six points of the half thanks to a pair of made foul shots each from Solomon Callaghan and Brandon Noel as the home team was down 42-36 at halftime.
Milwaukee begun the second half with another 6-0 run and went up by double-digits at 48-36. Later, it was 51-41 before Doumbia scored five of the game’s next seven points to cut the road team’s lead down to 52-46 with 14:36 left to go. The Panthers went on to score the next five points with free throws from AJ McKee and a three-point play from Danilo Jovanovich to make it 57-46. Wright State cut the deficit to nine on three different occasions down the stretch and eventually make it 62-53, but Jovanovich hit a pair of shots at the charity stripe to make it 64-53 and the Panthers had a double-figure advantage for the final 11:08 of the contest.
Alex Huibregtse led WSU with 21 points and was 4-of-6 from downtown. 17 points for Noel, 14 points off the bench for Doumbia, and 10 points for Keaton Norris.
Wright State made 50 percent of their shots from the field (28-of-56) and 42.9 percent of their three-pointers (9-of-21), but they only made 63.6 percent of their attempts at the charity stripe (14-of-22). However, they won the battle of on-court points by an absurd margin of 53-4.
Head coach Bart Lundy and his Panthers (14-7, 7-3 Horizon), who are now tied for second place in the standings with Purdue Fort Wayne, had six players score in double-figures: 18 points each from Pullian and Themus Fulks, 15 points off the bench from Erik Pratt, 11 points and four steals from McKee, and 10 points each from Faizon Fields and Jamichael Stillwell. Jovanovich recorded nine points and seven rebounds off the bench, Fulks was one assist shy of a double-double and had three steals, and Pratt was 4-of-6 from the beyond the arc.
Milwaukee shot 49.2 percent from the field (31-of-63), 45.8 percent on three-pointers (11-of-24) and 81.5 percent on foul shots (12-of-15). They also turned the ball over only nine times, had their bench outscore the WSU bench 28-25, won the rebound margin 36-30, and had 21 points off 13 Raider turnovers.
Up next: Wright State will stay at home and try to redeem themselves when the Robert Morris Colonials come to the Nutter Center on Saturday, January 25 for a 1ET tip-off.
