When Wright State’s TJ Burch lofted the basketball off the backboard on a fastbreak for an Andrea Holden jam coming up behind him, a charge was sent through the stadium. And it all but signaled that the Raiders’ 74-63 lead over Northern Kentucky, with 9:03 to go in the second half, it was enough to get WSU to the 2026 Barbasol Horizon League Championship.
That doesn’t mean it was easy. The Norse, who had already upset a higher-seeded Oakland and Green Bay had looked like a team with little to lose for much of the first half and led by six almost four minutes into the second half.
”We knew they’d be ready,” Wright State head coach Clint Sargent said. “Arguably playing better than anybody in the league right now…We feel like how they built their program, very similar to us, a lot of retention … Those guys are hard to guard.”
Even so, Wright State found the same gear that they’d needed to complete an 18-point second-half comeback to beat the Norse 92-91 just last weekend, and in about seven minutes of second-half play outscored Northern Kentucky 25-8, capped off by the Holden dunk. The final would be 103-90, as Wright State has now beaten Northern Kentucky in all three matchups the two teams played this season.
”That stretch when we pulled away, we had five or six stops; consecutive stops,” Sargent said. “And that’s when we’re at our best.”
Much of that work, at least offensively, was done by Jeffersonville High School (Ind.) product Michael Cooper, who just a year ago was also playing in Indianapolis for a state championship that his team won. His return visit to The Circle City went well, as he scored a season-high 25 points in 25 minutes off all the bench and with all but two of those points coming in the second half.
“I just got some good looks,” Cooper said afterwards. “My teammates put me in a good spot, and I was just able to knock them down.”
Cooper had plenty of help too, as the Raiders placed four other players score in double figures, starting with Burch, who had 22.
Wright State will play again tonight at 7 p.m. ET with an NCAA Tournament bid on the line against Detroit Mercy, who beat the league’s defending champs — Robert Morris — in last night’s nightcap, 70-64.
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