Battle and Mays Lead WSU Past Valpo 73-55

By Mike Klingshirn

DAYTON, Ohio – Armond Battle poured in a career-high 23 points and Julius Mays added 21 to lead the Wright State Raiders over the Valparaiso Crusaders 73-55 at the Nutter Center on Sunday afternoon. In addition to scoring, Battle and Mays led their team in rebounds, grabbing six apiece. In a stellar all-around performance, Battle also chipped in by making four steals.

“Losing the game like we did to Butler on Friday, we had to bounce back,” Mays said. “We had to let that one go. We’ll get another shot at Butler in Indy in February, so we knew that we had to win this game.”

Battle finished the game, hitting 7-of-11 from the field and 8-of-12 from the free throw line. His 23 points were far above his season average of 5.8 points per game.

“I told him (Battle) after the game on Friday night, that he was playing how I started out earlier in the season,” Mays said. “You just need to quit thinking so much on offense and just play your game. We know the Armond Battle that can play – and that’s the Armond Battle that played tonight.”

After a three-pointer by Mays quickly put the Raiders on top 3-0, just 11 seconds into the game, the Valparaiso Crusaders (10-7, 3-2 HL) took command of the contest’s next eight minutes to go up 12-7. Wright State (9-9, 4-2 HL) responded with an Arceneaux trey and a spinning jumper near the hoop by Cole Darling to even the score at 12.

Both teams battled toe-to-toe over the remaining eleven minutes of the half. Armond Battle closed the first half scoring by hitting a layup with six seconds left, to pull WSU within 33-31, heading into the locker room.

In a game reminiscent of the battle against Butler two nights earlier, there were eight lead changes and eleven tied scores, with the scoreboard reading 37-37 and 15:36 showing on the clock. From there, however, this game was totally dominated by the Raiders.

Wright State went on an 8-0 run over the next two minutes to go up 45-37, fueled by Matt Vest and Arceneaux layups, a tip-in by Battle, and a jumper by Arceneaux. Valpo got no closer than five points (47-42), before the Raiders stretched their advantage to 69-51 with 2:02 left to play, and eventually winning by a final score of 73-55.

Wright State shot 49-percent (26-of-53) form the field, and 77-percent (17-of-22) from the charity stripe. The Raiders out-rebounded the Crusaders 35-31 and committed just nine turnovers for the game.

Attendance:
Thanks to approximately 1,900 out of 2,000 students who attended the ESPN-U nationally televised Butler game that failed to show up for this one, the announced attendance for Sunday afternoon’s contest was just 3,736 — down about 2,800 from two nights before.

Postgame Audio

Battle Mays

Coach Donlon

Photos © and Courtesy of Tim G. Zechar