Four Players Score in Double Digits as Wright State Blows Out Florida Atlantic

The Wright State Raiders dominated from beginning to end in their 97-71 win over the Florida Atlantic Owls in the first-ever meeting between both teams on Friday night.

Green Bay transfer C.J. O’Hara scored a career-high 24 points while shooting 7-for-12 from the field and a perfect 10-for-10 at the foul line. He also recorded three steals. “Just the way we started, I feel like we came here to play from the jump,” O’Hara said after the game. “That’s what Coach [Sargent] preaches every day to us, just to be ready and stay ready.”

College of Charleston transfer Chadlyn Traylor recorded a career-high 20 points. “I just hang my hat on being able to control the game as a point guard, especially a part of a winning team,” he said. “That’s the things I gotta do, and I feel like I’m a two-way guy. I wanna defend, and I know to win games, you gotta defend. So I’m gonna bring that every game.”

Junior Andrea Holden notched his second straight double-double with 19 points and, once again, tied his career-high with 11 rebounds while shooting 6-of-9 from the floor and 7-of-8 at the charity stripe. Fellow junior Dominic Pangonis scored a dozen points of his own, while sophomore Kellen Pickett finished with nine points and five rebounds. “Just thankful for Kellen Pickett, Andrea Holden, Dominic Pangonis,” Wright State head coach Clint Sargent stated. “Those guys just lead so well, just being for each other, for their teammates, and setting such a great example peer to peer inside our locker room. I just cannot state that enough.”

The Raiders shot 56.9 percent (33-of-58) from the field, 35 percent (7-of-23) on threes, and a staggering 88.9 percent (24-of-27) on free throws. They also outrebounded the Owls 38-26 throughout the night and shot a perfect 15-for-15 at the foul line in the second half alone.

Preseason All-AAC First Teamer Kanaan Carlyle played all 40 minutes and led all scorers with 25 points on 4-of-6 three-point attempts, with 13 points and four steals coming from Long Island University transfer Mason Porter-Brown, and 11 points and nine rebounds coming from Preseason AAC Freshman of the Year Felipe Quinones.

John Jakus’ Owls team shot an overall 40.7 percent (22-of-54) from the field, 42.1 percent (8-of-19) on threes, and a solid 73.1 percent (19-of-26) on foul shots for the game. However, theirnshot making was better in the second half as they made 63.3 percent (7-of-11) of their triple tries in the final 20 minutes of the night.

Wright State, like last Monday against Air Force, never trailed in the contest. After taking an early 7-4 lead, the home team busted out with a 12-0 run. It begun with a jumper from Traylor, a Pangonis free throw, a three from DePaul transfer Ilija Milijaševic, both a layup and a dunk from Holden, and a fastbreak layup from O’Hara to make it 19-4 at the 13:21 mark.

Wright State’s lead grew to 24 after a 7-0 run thanks to a made free throw from Holden, two made free throws from O’Hara, a layup from redshirt freshman Isaiah Williams, and another pair of made foul shots from freshman Noah Lewis to make it 43-19 at the 3:20 point.In the final 2:06 of the first half, Florida Atlantic scored six straight points courtesy of buckets from Quinones, Porter-Brown, and Carlyle to make it a 47-28 deficit at the intermission.

The Owls extended that run to eight unanswered points with a pair of made free throws from Carlyle just 13 seconds into the second half to make 47-30 following a foul called on Holden, but the Raiders went on a 15-6 run over the next four minutes and change to make it a 62-36 cushion, with four points each coming from Pickett and O’Hara in that span.

FAU only needed a minute and 18 seconds to go on a 10-2 run in the middle of the final stanza when Porter-Brown started it by nailing a three, stealing the ball on defense, and running down the other end of the court for a two-handed power jam. After O’Hara countered with two more free throws, Carlyle drilled a triple of his own to cut Wright State’s lead down to 16 at 67-51 with 11:40 left in the contest. But unfortunately for the Owls, that was as close as they would get moving forward.

Wright State grew its lead to as many as 29 on two separate occasions in the final moments of the game with a three by Lewis that made it 95-66 at the 1:32 mark, followed by an O’Hara bucket to make it 97-68 with 52 seconds left.

Then, Carlyle was fouled by Williams at the other end of the court on a three-point attempt and made a trio of free throws to close out the scoring.

Note: Friday night was a doubleheader the Nutter Center, with Kari Hoffman’s WSU women blowing out National Christian College Athletic Association (NCCAA) Division I opponent Ohio Christian 103-25 earlier that evening. With both Wright State squads earning victories on Friday, it marks the first time since March 4, 2025 that Sargent and Hoffman’s teams have won games on the exact same day. Blake Schumaker has the recap of the women’s game.

Up next:

– The women’s will visit Michigan on Sunday, November 8 at 2pm ET at the Crisler Center in Ann Arbor, MI.

– The men’s team will visit Toledo on Tuesday, November 10 at 7pm ET at Savage Arena in Toledo, OH.