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Raiders Advance with 68-56 Opening Round Tournament Victory over Valpo

By Mike Klingshirn
Dayton, OH - Scott Grote and Cooper Land came off of the bench to record career highs in scoring to lead the Wright State Raiders (19-12) to a 68-56 victory over the Valparaiso Crusaders (9-22), in opening round action of the Horizon League tournament on Tuesday night at the Nutter Center. Land scored 15 points in 18 minutes of play on 6-of-6 shooting from the field, including 3-of-3 from beyond the arc. Grote added 19 points, which included 11-of-13 shooting from the charity stripe. Scott also grabbed 5 rebounds and handed out 3 assists.

Photos � and Courtesy of
Tim G. Zechar

March 4, 2009
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Box Score

"Cooper has been shooting the heck out of it for the past two to three weeks. We knew that this game was coming because Cooper has really been shooting it in practice."
- WSU Coach Brad Brownell

The Raiders set the tone early with some good defense and excellent shooting. They scored the first 11 points of the contest to go up 11-0 after just three and a half minutes of play. The Green and Gold held Valpo scoreless from the field until Cameron Witt hit a field goal with 13:07 to play before halftime. That bucket brought the Crusaders to within 13-3.

Valparaiso head coach Homer Drew partially attributed Valpo's slow start to the inexperience of a few of his players. He said "We were playing some young guys. It was their first tournament action. They played hard, but did not play relaxed."

A scrappy Valpo team clawed back into the game, but some sharp shooting by Cooper Land was the key to helping the Raiders maintain their lead. They went into the locker room with a 29-23 advantage. Land had 10 points on 4-of-4 shooting at the intermission.

Wright State head coach Brad Brownell wasn't surprised with Cooper Land's performance. He said "Cooper has been shooting the heck out of it for the past two to three weeks. We knew that this game was coming because Cooper has really been shooting it in practice."

Valpo eventually took the lead 33-32 with 16:45 to play. That's when Wright State went on a 14-0 run. Cooper Land hit a jumper to put the Raiders up 34-33. He followed that with another 3-pointer. Next, Todd Brown threw down a slam dunk, thanks to a nice drive and feed along the baseline from N'Gai Evans. Scott Grote scored the next four points and Evans connected on a 3-pointer. The Raiders led 46-33 with 11:47 to play.

Todd Brown hit a shot from beyond the arc, making the score 51-41 with 6:22 to play. That trey would be Wright State's final points from the field, because the Crusaders resorted to fouling Wright State in an effort make them win the game from the line. The Raiders were up to the task. They scored their final 17 points from the charity stripe. The Green and Gold advanced in the Horizon League tournament with a 68-56 victory. Overall, the Raiders hit 25-of-31 free throws for 80%, including 22-of-27 in the second half.

After the game, Valparaiso seniors Urule Igbavboa and Jake Diebler were heartbroken by defeat and the realization that their college careers were over. Both were red-eyed from tears. Diebler slowly and quietly said "It's tough to know that I won't play again, but I'll forever have brown and gold in me." Tonight's attendance of 3,006 was the smallest crowd of the season to see a Wright State men's basketball game at the Nutter Center. Small opening round attendance figures have been quite common, ever since the Horizon League adopted the tournament format in which the league's #1 and #2 seeded teams receive double opening round byes. Other opening round attendance figures were 1,988 (Cleveland St.), 2,425 (Milwaukee), and 2,629 (Youngstown St.). Brad Brownell was afraid that tonight's game wouldn't feel like a tournament game because it was not being played with all of the league's teams at a neutral site, similar to how they do it in his former league, the CAA. Brownell said "I wanted tonight's game to feel like a tournament game and not a normal game for our guys. I told the kids to do something different in the morning that they don't normally do, like buy the Dayton Daily News." Of course, Brad said that with a grin and a laugh.

Wright State's scoring leaders were Scott Grote (19 points), Brown (16), Land (15), Cooperwood (7), Evans (7), Tabler (3), and Graham (1).

Wright State's bench outscored Valpo's 37-13. The Raiders also won the battle of the boards 33-28. The Green and Gold had 13 assists and 16 turnovers.

Game Notes:

Todd Brown moved into 23rd place in the Wright State all-time scoring leaders list tonight.
Will Graham played in his 122nd game as a Raider. He and Jordan Pleiman share the distinction of having played in more games than anybody to ever put on a Wright State uniform.
With 6 assists in tonight's game, Graham moved into 7th place in the school's all-time career assists category. He has 324.

Next Game:

Fri. March 6 vs. Milwaukee at 6 p.m.
(Horizon League Quarterfinals at Hinkle Fieldhouse, Indianapolis, Indiana)

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