The Wright State men’s basketball used a big second half to pull off a 98-85 home win over the IU Indy Jaguars in the 1st Round of the 2025 Barbasol Horizon League Tournament.
IU Indy wasted no time making an early statement as their hot shooting gave them a 24-9 lead in the opening 6:29 with five different Jaguars making threes: Paul Zilinskas, Sean Craig, Keenan Garner, Timaris Brown, and Ron Rutland III; followed by a three-point play from Garner which created the 15-point advantage for the visitors.
The Jags remained in front 38-24 with a layup from Craig and another three from Rutland, but the Raiders scored 10 unanswered points to trail 38-34 with a pair of Keaton Norris threes and back-to-back layups from Jack Doumbia. WSU scored the last five points of the first 20 minutes with a rare three from Doumbia and capped off by a buzzer-beating layup from Brandon Noel to give the home team a 43-42 lead and they would never trail in the game again.
That started a 9-0 run for WSU as they kicked off the second half with a shot by Norris and a dunk by Noel to go up 47-42. Then, Jarvis Walker and Alex Huibregtse traded threes before a Paul Zilinskas layup and another Craig three tied it up at 50 all.
IU Indy cut the Raider lead to just one point on three different occasions early in the second half, but Wright State always had an answer down the stretch to pretty much had the game out of reach. The first instance came when WSU took the 54-50 lead on an Imariagbe layup followed by a pair of Doumbia foul shots before Rutland’s three made it 54-53. The second instance came when Doumbia and Zilinskas traded layups to make it 56-55. Third time was a charm when Huibregtse hit a shot before Walker followed it up with a three-point play at the other end to make it 61-60.
However, Clint Sargent’s crew went on an 8-0 run to grow the lead at 69-60 with 10:54 to play courtesy of more free throws by Doumbia and three straight buckets at the rim from Noel. The Jags stopped the run with a Walker layup and free throws from Zilinskas, but WSU would score the next six points to make it 75-64 with a Doumbia layup, followed by dunks from both Noel and Doumbia. Later on, Huibregtse and Noel nailed back-to-back triples before another Imariagbe layup, which extended the lead to 16 at 90-74 and pretty much put the cream cheese on the bagel.
“It stinks that the season is over,” head coach Paul Corsaro said after the game. “Credit to Wright State, they really shot the heck out of the ball. They’re a good team – we had three hard fought games with them. I’m proud of my guys. I thought we came out ready to go today.
“We threw a great first punch,” Corsaro added, “And ultimately we just ran out of gas. The two stats that were important to us that we didn’t fulfill was winning the rebounding battle and defending the arc. Ultimately, that was our demise. We felt like we needed to win the rebounding battle and they beat us by 16. And our goal was to hold them to six or less from three and we were far from that.”
Doumbia stole the show with a near triple-double of 23 points, 12 rebounds, seven assists, two steals, and a block all in 30 minutes off the bench. He’s the only NCAA Division I player over the last decade in a half with 20+ points, seven-plus rebounds, seven-plus assists and a 100 percent field goal shooting in any game.
Noel scored 17 points and also shot an efficient 7-of-9 from the field. Solomon Callaghan was held scoreless for the first time in 10 games, but dished out six assists. Imariagbe had nine of his 12 points in the second half on 5-of-6 overall shooting while also pulling down eight rebounds in 25 minutes. The rest of the Raiders bench had a combined 14 points: eight from Logan Woods and the other six from Andrew Welage.
Huibregtse and Norris had mirror statlines: 16 points, four three-pointers, four assists, and three rebounds.
Wright State shot an outstanding 63.2 percent from the field (36-of-57), while IU Indy shot 53.4 percent overall (31-of-58).
Both teams made 14 threes, with WSU at 46.7 percent from downtown (14-of-30) and IU Indy at 58.3 percent (14-of-24).
WSU also won the rebounding battle 35-19 (24 boards on the defensive end) and also hit 80 percent of their free throws (12-of-15) as opposed to the Jaguars at 64.3 percent (9-of-14), but IUI committed only five turnovers while the Raiders had 11 of their own.
IU Indy, who’s season ends with a 10-22 record, had all five starters score in double-figures and were led by Walker’s 20 points. 17 points, seven rebounds and five assists for Sean Craig; while Keenan Garner scored a career-high of 14 points on a perfect 6-of-6 shooting. 12 points for Zilinskas, 10 points for Alec Millender, and nine points off the bench from Rutland.
Note: It was the second half of a doubleheader at the Nutter Center, with the WSU women’s team beating Youngstown State 73-58 thanks to a record-breaking performance from Amaya Staton. It marks the second time this season that both squads have won games on the exact same day. Blake Schumaker has the full recap on the first part of the twin bill.
Up next: Wright State (15-17) will hit the road for the 2025 Barbasol Horizon League Tournament Quarterfinal round as they visit top-seeded Robert Morris on Thursday, March 6 for a 8ET tipoff in Moon Township, PA.
