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Butler Pops Wright State's Balloon 77-65

By Mike Klingshirn
Dayton, OH - The 2009-2010 Wright State Raider men's basketball season began with the high expectations of a possible championship season, similar to the one three years ago, when DaShaun Wood and company captured the Horizon League crown. The atmosphere around campus and inside the Nutter Center was reminiscent to that glorious season, but things didn't go according to script. Tonight, the Butler Bulldogs dealt a crushing blow to Wright State's aspirations of hosting this year's league tournament, by handing them a major setback, in front of a nearly sold out crowd of 9,674.

January 9, 2010
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Photos � and Courtesy of
Tim G. Zechar

Post-game Audio

Butler coach/players

Duggins and Cory comments

Brad Brownell comments

Box score

The Bulldogs (11-4, 4-0) topped the Raiders (10-6, 3-2) by a final score of 77-65. For Wright State, there are still 13 games remaining on the league schedule, but because this is a very good Butler team, overcoming a 2-game deficit to them will be a monumental task.

Following the game, Wright State's head coach, Brad Brownell was asked, "How can a game like this, make the team better?"

"It exposes weaknesses," said Brownell. "It's pretty evident that we have some, and we've got to get back to work. The best way to do that is for guys to be humbled a little bit. When you're humbled in front of 9,500 people, it doesn't feel very good."

The Green and Gold appeared to be a bit nervous in the opening moments, committing numerous turnovers in the early going. They fell behind 7-2, before scoring the next 7 points to grab their only lead of the contest by a score of 9-7 at the 13:30 mark.

Cory Cooperwood played an inspiring first half at an extremely high energy level. His effort allowed the Raiders to stay within striking distance. The Raiders trailed 19-17 with 7:40 to play in the half. However, Butler scored 12 straight points over the next three and a half minutes, to open up a 31-17 lead.

Prior to halftime, Cooperwood was responsible for 10 points, 4 rebounds, and 4 blocked shots.

"He (Cooperwood) played his tail off," said Brownell. "I told the guys at halftime 'If we had more guys playing with the same energy as Cory, we wouldn't be in this situation.' That's why he's one of the guys that I truly enjoy coaching. He's that way every day."

Shelvin Mack was instrumental in building Butler's early advantage. He tallied 15 points before the half, which included 3-of-6 shooting from beyond the arc. As a result, Butler enjoyed a 37-26 lead heading into the locker room.

Butler eventually built their largest lead of the game at 54-39 with 13:26 to play, but WSU still had a little bit of fight in them. The Green and Gold drew to within 62-57 with five minutes remaining, sending the Raider fans into frenzy. Zach Hahn quickly quieted the crowd on the next possession by draining a wide-open trey, giving the Bulldogs some breathing room at 65-57 with 4:43 left.

Wright State never threatened from that point forward, eventually falling by a final score of 77-65.

"I was disappointed a little bit with our play," said Brownell. "We didn't play as inspired as I thought that we would. We certainly made some mistakes with Shelvin Mack. If you give Butler an 11-point lead, it's going to be tough."

Todd Brown led the Raiders with 18 points, hitting 3-of-8 from the field and 9-of-11 from the free throw line. Cory Cooperwood's box score read: 15 points, 5 rebounds, 5 blocked shots, and 1 assist in 33 minutes of play.

Butler outscored Wright State in the paint 26-12, and out-rebounded the Raiders 31-18.

The Bulldogs shot 23-of-45 (51.1%) from the field, while the Green and Gold hit 18-of-44 (40.9%). Butler connected on 23-of-24 (95.8%) free throws. The Raiders hit 22-of-28 (78.6%) from the charity stripe.

Wright State committed 11 turnovers and dished out 9 assists. Butler finished with 15 turnovers and 15 assists.

Game Notes:

Vaughn Duggins left the game with 9:13 remaining in the contest. He appeared to have a serious leg injury. Duggins limped into the locker room with WSU's head trainer, but returned to action 5 minutes later. He rolled his right ankle, and should be OK.

ScoreTracker