Page not found : RaiderRoundball – The Official Home of Wright State University RaiderRoundball Fans

Not Found, Error 404

The page you are looking for no longer exists.

Perhaps you can find what youa re looking for by searching the site archives

by page:

Rowdy's RaiderRoundball.com
Basketball

| More

Raiders Manhandled in Championship Game: Fall to Butler 70-45

By Mike Klingshirn
Indianapolis, IN - The Butler Bulldogs displayed why they are at a different level than the rest of their Horizon League competition, blowing out the number 2 seeded Wright State Raiders 70-45, in the league's championship game at Hinkle Fieldhouse in front of a crowd of 6,065.

March 10, 2010
Tell us your opinion!
Email RaiderRoundball

Photos � and Courtesy of
Tim G. Zechar

Box score

Post-game Audio

N'Gai Vaughn and Brad comments

Nearly 1,000 Raider faithful traveled to Indianapolis with the hope of sharing a history making night for their team. Instead, they witnessed Wright State's worst defeat of the season, a season-low 45-point offensive performance, and a blowout that was reminiscent of an opening round NCAA tournament game between a number 1 and 16 seed. In their previous 31 games of the season, Wright State's worst defeats were by 12 points in two contests -- both at the hands of Butler.

"I apologize that we didn't play better," said Wright State head coach Brad Brownell. "We're a better team than we showed tonight, but Butler was playing at a high level."

Butler (28-4) dominated from the opening tip-off until the game's final horn. The Raiders appeared to be nervous from the outset, committing turnovers on their first two possessions of the contest. It was an indicator of the night that was ahead of them.

Wright State came out in a zone defense early and Shelvin Mack took advantage. He shot over the top of it, hitting three treys and a jumper, for 11 quick points and a 17-11 Bulldog advantage -- just a little over eight minutes into the game.

Zach "the Raider Killer" Hahn joined in on the action, draining two deep 3-pointers, pushing Butler's lead to 27-17 with 6:34 left in the half. "Zach Hahn makes threes every time that he plays us," said Brownell. "Mack shot the ball exceptionally well early. When they see balls go in early like that, then you just know it's going to be tough."

Shelvin Mack capped the first half by draining another trey, sending the Bulldogs into the locker room with a commanding 42-28 lead.

In order to get back into the contest, Wright State needed to begin the second half strong. They did not. A missed lay-up by Cory Cooperwood and two WSU turnovers led to a scoreless first two minutes of the half. Zach "the Raider Killer" Hahn buried another trey from deep downtown, and the rout was on at 51-30 with 15:37 left to be played.

Not even the "Legend" and his second half "R-A-I-D-E-R-S" cheer could pull this contest out for Wright State. Brownell said "In the second half, we felt a little sorry for ourselves and we didn't play like we needed to play. We settled for some bad shots. Some of the credit for that goes to Butler, but we didn't perform like we needed to perform."

The Bulldogs never let up. They built a 30-point lead (69-39), before eventually defeating WSU by a final score of 70-45

N'Gai Evans, named to the all-tournament team, was the only Raider to score in double figures, adding 13 points. Todd Brown was held scoreless in 30 minutes of action, going 0-of-4 from the field, missing three attempts from 3-point land.

"They've (Butler) played us three times, and handled us relatively easily," commented Brownell. "We've played a couple of teams that are on the bubble, in Mississippi State and Washington. I think that they're better than those two teams. They've won twenty in a row. I don't think many teams in the country would go through our league and win every game."

Wright State's record sits at 20-12. Is a post season tournament in their future? Brownell answered "We won twenty games. We've got a decent RPI. Three of our losses came to a team that's ranked in the top 12 in the country. We had a good season -- not a great season, but we did some good things. Hopefully, they (a tournament committee) will look at our body of work and not what we did tonight. If they're watching just tonight, they're not going to think that we're very good."

Brownell finished by saying "Right now, Butler is just better than we are. We've got to do some things in our program to change that."