Well, the first 20 minutes of the game between No. 1 seed Wright State and 10th seeded Cleveland State were close. In fact, the Raiders only held a five-point advantage over the Vikings going into the locker room.
And then the second half happened.
Cleveland State’s issues with fading away in the final 20 minutes, a trademark of the seven-game slide that was finally snapped against IU Indy on Monday, reared their ugly head again. And Wright State, ever the defensive force that it is, capitalized big-time, and a five-point halftime lead ballooned into a 90-61 boat race for the the Raiders.
“The start of the second half is one of the most important parts of the game,” said Wright State senior forward Michael Imariagbe. “It can make or break us. And I feel like we came out strong, came out locked in, ready to go, knowing that we couldn’t let the foot off the gas.”
“Our guys have been through so much, and we’ve played in a lot of big games,” said Raiders head coach Clint Sargent. “We’ve played with a lot of pressure here, holding first place and finishing the league title. So, I was pleased with where we’re at. Even in the first half, I thought our guys had a calmness and they were very connected defensively. As they step into bigger and bigger games, they know they can lean on that.”
Throughout the first half, Wright State held Cleveland State at arm’s length, maintaining a lead between five and seven points through most of the the frame. When the Raiders pulled their lead to seven points after a TJ Burch lay-up with 4:53 left in the half, the Vikings erased it within a minute and a half, tying the ballgame on a pair of Jaidon Lipscomb free throws.
The momentum began to shift at the end of the first half after the Vikings, courtesy of a Lucas Burton tip-in, cut the Wright State lead to three. Freshman Michael Cooper scored a layup to close the frame and widen the Raider lead to five.
And then Wright State was off to the races.
It started after Lipscomb hit a three to put CSU within six of the Raiders. Wright State responded with a 14-2 run, which featured the Raiders capitalizing on the absence of Dayan Nessah and Josiah Harris to pound on the glass. That work in the paint turned into easy points, which was a running theme throughout the contest, as Wright State dominated the Vikings in paint points, 56-18.
Tre Beard tried to stem the Wright State rally with a three-pointer, but then the Raiders ripped off eight straight points, capped by a Burch layup, that put the game totally out of reach for the Vikings.
As has been the case most of the season, Wright State was led by its freshmen, with Horizon League Freshman of the Year Kellen Pickett leading all scorers with 18 points and Cooper finishing with 17 points. Imariagbe and Burch, the Defensive Player and Newcomer of the Year in the league, also chipped in 16 points apiece.
For Cleveland State, which finished the first season under head coach Rob Summers 11-22, Preist Ryan led the Vikings in scoring with 15 points, as well as grabbing seven rebounds, and Lipscomb finished with 13.
With the win, the Raiders return to Indy and are guaranteed to play on Monday in the Horizon League Tournament semifinals. The only question will be who top-seeded Wright State will play, and that will be determined on Sunday, when Green Bay faces Northern Kentucky.
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