The Wright State Raiders basketball teams split the outings with the Cleveland State Vikings, with the women’s team losing in a blowout and the men’s team winning in come-from-behind fashion.
In the women’s game, it was the annual Pink Game at the Henry J. Goodman Arena, with Chris Kielsmeier’s Vikings wearing their pink jerseys trimmed in black while Kari Hoffman’s Raiders wore their white jerseys trimmed in pink. But at the end of the day, the Lady Vikings showed their Pink Ranger powers with a 81-46 victorious domination over the Raiders on Wednesday evening.
After trading baskets to begin the contest, the Vikings scored 11 unanswered points in the middle of the first quarter to take a 19-5 lead with 3:45 thanks to a layup from Mickayla Perdue, a trio of free throws from Destiny Leo, a pair of jumpers from Sara Guerreiro, and another layup from Mya Moore. Although Wright State stopped the run with a Macie Taylor layup, Perdue answered right back with a layup at the other end to give Cleveland State the 21-7 lead after one.
Even though the second quarter started the same way as the first quarter, the Vikings went on an 8-0 run to make it 33-11 courtesy of free throws from Perdue, a three-pointer from Macey Fegan, and then a three-point play from Perdue. Amaya Staton countered with a layup before a free throw from Guerreiro made it 34-13 Cleveland State at recess.
Both teams stayed the course and were even until the Vikings went on a 9-0 run in the middle of the period to make it 51-25 with a Perdue layup, a Leo three, a Fegan layup, and a Guerreiro jumper. The Vikings went on another 8-0 run during the last 2:45 of the third stanza to make it 62-29 with back-to-back three-pointers from Perdue and Fegan, along with free throws from Perdue and Guerreiro. That made it 62-29 after three, and the rest was pretty much history from that point forward.
Wright State (9-20, 7-12 Horizon) shot 30.5 percent overall the from the field (24-of-63) an abysmal 18.8 percent from downtown (3-of-16), and 53.8 percent on free throws (7-of-12). Staton was the only Raider in double-figure scoring as she finished with her seventh straight double-double courtesy of 14 points and 10 rebounds plus a pair of steals. Also, seven points from Olivia Brown and six points off the bench from Rylee Sagester.
Although Cleveland State’s defense was not the best in their first meeting of the season with Wright State on December 16, it was definitely a lot better this time around. Kielsmeier’s squad (23-7, 14-5 Horizon) outrebounded WSU 39-30 while shooting an efficient 57.4 percent overall from the field (31-of-54) and 71.4 percent from the charity stripe (15-of-21), but they did make a poor 25 percent of their threes (4-of-16). Perdue led all scorers with 20 points (6-of-11 FG) plus six rebounds, four assists, and a pair of steals. 17 points and seven rebounds for Guerreiro, nine points each for Jordana Reisma and Kali Howard, eight points for Fegan, and six points and seven rebounds for Leo. Moore played 17 valuable minutes off the bench, finishing with four points, three rebounds, three assists, two steals, and a career-high six blocks.
On Thursday night in the Nutter Center, Clint Sargent’s Raider men came back from a 16-point deficit to earn a big time 82-76 win on Senior Night in a contest that was nationally televised on ESPN2.
In the first half, Michael Imariagbe kicked off the scoring with a pair of made free throws before Cleveland State countered with the next 10 unanswered points with a Tahj Staveskie three-pointer, a jumper from Isaac Abidde, a Dylan Arnett layup, and a three-point play from Tevin Smith. Near the end of the first stanza, Daniyal Robinson’s Vikings went on another 7-0 with a three-point play from Abidde and back-to-back buckets from Arnett for their biggest lead of the night at 43-27. WSU responded with an Andrea Holden free throw and an Alex Huibregtse three before Arnett scored again right before recess. Just like that Cleveland State shot 59.4 percent from the field (19-of-32) and went into the locker room with a 45-31 halftime lead.
However, Wright State kicked off the second half with a 14-4 run to make it 47-42 with Huibregtse scoring eight of WSU’s 14 points in that span, along with the other six points coming from three-balls by Brandon Noel and Solomon Callaghan. Cleveland State’s biggest second-half advantage was eight on three of different occasions. The first one came early in the half when they scored six unanswered points to go up 57-49 with buckets from Chase Robinson and another one from Staveskie with 12:29 to go.
Later on, the second eight-point lead came when Holden made a pair of free throws before Je’Shawn Stevenson answered with a three to make it 62-54 with 11:03 left. The third time was a charm when Logan Woods traded trey-balls with Robinson to make it 67-59 Vikings. Woods then responded with a four-point play with 7:27 to play to cut the lead to four points at 67-63, but the Vikings went on to score five of the next seven points to push their lead back up to a seven-point cushion at 72-65 with a Cole Franklin layup, a Smith foul shot, and a dunk from Arnett.
Brandon Noel was then double-teamed, but he smartly fed it to Callaghan for a open three at the 4:50 mark to make it another four-point deficit at 72-68. Noel then made it a one-possession game with a pair of free throws before Stevenson’s layup made it 74-70 with 3:50 on the clock. Then, Wright State took the lead and then some at 80-74 thanks to a 10-0 run with 11 seconds to go courtesy of another three and a layup from Callaghan, along with five combined free throws made by Imariagbe, Noel, and Jack Doumbia. Smith then drove to the bucket for a layup before Noel put the cream cheese on the bagel with a pair of made shots at the charity stripe.
Huibregtse and Noel recorded 20 points and three assists each. Huibregtse had 14 of his 20 in the second half as he finished the night going 6-of-9 on three-pointers along with three rebounds and and two steals. Noel went 7-of-11 shooting and 5-of-6 the free throw line, finishing a rebound shy of a double-double.
Callaghan recorded 11 of his 14 points in the second stanza and knocked down four triples in seven attempts, with eight points each coming from Imariagbe and Holden.
In the second half, WSU shot 68 percent overall (15-of-22) and connected on 81.8 percent of their threes (9-of-11) while also scoring 13 points off six Cleveland State turnovers.
“I would lead more towards the defensive end,” Noel said after the victory. “I think we did a lot better job in the second half, I think we rebounded a lot better. We were down 13 rebounds in the first half, I’m not sure what the second half looks like, but I think we did a lot better. That’s a key part of what helped us come back and what helped us ultimately win that game.”
“I was feeling really healthy going into the night,” said Huibregtse, who was scoreless last Friday night in the loss to Northern Kentucky. “I had a good week of practice, I think. I got to see the ball go through early. My first shot went in, which seems like it hasn’t happened all season for me, you know, I kinda just took that and ran with it. Then obviously, just the help of my teammates with screens and getting me the ball in the right spot really helps.”
Here are more postgame comments from Sargent:
Wright State (14-16, 8-11 Horizon) shot 57.1 percent on both their overall shots (28-of-49) and their threes (12-of-21), while Cleveland State shot 57.9 percent overall (33-of-57) and 38.9 percent from downtown (7-of-18).
The biggest stat line was from the charity stripe, where Cleveland State made only four trips to the line (3-of-4, 75 percent) as opposed to Wright State being there 19 times in their own right (14-of-19, 73.7 percent). In the second half, WSU made exactly 75 percent of their foul shots (12-of-16).
Cleveland State (19-11, 13-6 Horizon), who outrebounded Wright State 29-19, finished with four players in double-figure scoring: 20 points (10-of-11 FG), eight rebounds and two blocks from Arnett; 15 points from Smith; 12 points and three steals off the bench from Stevenson; and 10 points and seven rebounds from Abidde. Ebrima Dibba was scoreless, but led the game with seven assists.
Up next: Both teams will be in action on March 1 of Saturday afternoon for their regular season finales. The women’s team will be at home to face Robert Morris on Amaya Staton Senior Day at 2ET, while the men’s team will visit IU Indy at 2:30ET/1:30CT.
