Santa Clara ends Wright State’s season in CBI Final Four

March 28, 2013

By Mike Klingshirn

DAYTON, Ohio – The Santa Clara Broncos advanced to next week’s CBI championship series with an 81-69 victory over the Wright State Raiders in front of 3,188 disappointed, yet proud, Raider faithful on Wednesday night at the Nutter Center.

The evening started out well for Wright State (23-13, 10-6 HL). Tied at 10, the Raiders proceeded to score eight straight points on baskets near the hoop by Tavares Sledge and Joe Bramanti, a jumper at the top of the key by Reggie Arceneaux, and a shot by AJ Pacher. That gave them an 18-10 advantage at the 12:03 mark of the first half.

With WSU still leading by eight at 26-18, Santa Clara (24-11, 9-7 WCC) went on an 11-2 run to take their first lead of the contest by a score of 29-28 at 3:45.

The score was tied 34-34 when Santa Clara’s Marc Trasolini was whistled for an offensive foul. With seven seconds remaining before the end of the half, Arceneaux drove nearly the length of the floor and hit AJ Pacher for a two-handed dunk at the buzzer to send the Raiders into the halftime locker room with a 36-34 lead

Santa Clara head coach Kerry Keating knew that Wright State would be a difficult team to prepare for and was not surprised by WSU’s strong first half performance. “I’ve never seen a stat sheet this late in the season like theirs’,” Keating said. “It is so spread out. Seven different guys are shooting threes, and eight guys are scoring between four and nine points per game. That is really dangerous. It was working for them. All but one of their guys scored in the first half, so we had to change things up.”

Santa Clara went into a zone defense after halftime and it threw the Raiders’ rhythm off.

Wright State still maintained a 40-39 advantage with 17:33 left to play, but that is when the turnover bug struck, and Santa Clara’s Kevin Foster caught fire. Foster scored 21 of his game high 33 points the rest of the way.

Wright State head coach Billy Donlon sensed that the game was getting away from his team. “This was one of our best offensive starts to a game this season,” said Donlon. “That impacted our defense. We played phenomenal defense the first seven minutes of the game. The offense was going so well that we couldn’t turn it back defensively when we needed to.”

The Broncos went on a 14-2 run, fueled by seven points off of three unforced Wright State turnovers to take a commanding 53-42 lead with 12:59 left to play.

In all, the Raiders committed 11 turnovers in the final twenty minutes which led to 17 second half Santa Clara points. That combined with Foster’s hot hand were too much for Wright State to overcome.

The Raiders were getting spread too much defensively and getting beat to almost every loose ball. “Some of that is their (Santa Clara) size,” Donlon said. “When somebody weighs a lot more than you at every position, it’s impactful. We were freezing as the shot went up … a quick freeze. You can’t do that against a good team.”

“We were not as skilled as they were. Some of that’s their age and our size. We’ve got to improve on those two things.”

The Green and Gold were unable to mount a comeback the rest of the way. They got no closer than eight points (57-49) and trailed by as many as sixteen (78-62), before finally falling to the Broncos 81-69.

Donlon believes that the CBI tournament experience has been invaluable to his team. “We can’t simulate in the spring, summer, and fall … the game against Tulsa, the game against Richmond, and the game against Santa Clara,” he said. “Those three games were more intense than a regular season game. That’s for sure. You can’t put a price on that. It is something to learn and draw from.”

Three Raiders scored in double figure: AJ Pacher (17), Jerran Young (13), and Miles Dixon (10). Pacher also grabbed a team-high 8 rebounds.

Wright State shot 54 percent from the field on 26-of-48 shooting, and 4-of-15from beyond the arc. Santa Clara hit 31-of-64 from the field and 8-of-24 from 3-point land.

The Broncos, who started three seniors, out-rebounded the much younger Raiders 34-27, while committing just six turnovers for the entire game.

Following the game, Santa Clara’s head coach, Kerry Keating had some warm words for the Raiders. “I really like their team. I’m looking forward to following them,” he said. “Billy’s dad coached me as a 5-star camper. He was a genius and one of the original old-time old-school coaches that my father put me in touch with. I’ve got a huge amount of respect for Bill Sr. and obviously Bill Jr. has done a tremendous job. This is an unbelievable place and program. I’ll be rooting for them.”

The Raiders, who were picked to finish last in the Horizon League by many preseason pollsters, look forward to next season. “We were so hungry after everyone told us that we were going to be bad,” said AJ Pacher. “Well, it’s got to be the same way wherever we are picked next year. We’ve got to have the same attitude this offseason.”

They also realize, having finished with a record of 23-13, and a team that expects to return their entire roster with a couple of additions, that next year will be different. “They’ve got to be hungrier this year than they were a year ago,” Donlon said. “I’m proud of them for the season that we had. We had a good season. Great seasons are defined by championships. We were the hunters this year, but now we’ll be the hunted next year.”

Box Score

Post Game Audio

SCUs Keating and Foster

Pacher and Vest

Coach Donlon

Photos © and Courtesy of Tim G. Zechar

Raiders take thriller from Richmond Spiders

March 26, 2013

By Mike Klingshirn

DAYTON, Ohio – The Wright State Raiders advanced to the CBI semifinals with a thrilling 57-51 victory over the Richmond Spiders on Monday night at the Nutter Center. The see-saw affair featured 16 lead changes and 15 tied scores throughout the battle. The six point margin of victory was the largest lead held by either team on the night.

A crowd of 3,741 saw Richmond (19-15) score the last four points of the first twenty minutes to take a 26-23 halftime lead. It was the largest lead of the half for either team, in a half that had eight lead changes and seven tied scores. Miles Dixon led the way for Wright State (23-12) with nine first half points.

“I just let the game come to me and let it flow,” Dixon said. “Coach always talks to me about not forcing it on the first shot, so I just let the game come to me.”

The Raiders scored the first six points out of the locker room to go up 29-26, three minutes into the half. Richmond retook the lead by scoring the next seven points to go up 33-29, before stretching the margin to 39-34 with 10:06 left to play.

Wright State reclaimed the advantage two minutes later (41-40) on a JT Yoho drive to the hoop and free throw to complete a three point play. Six more lead changes ensued before the Spiders found themselves back on top 48-45 with 4:18 left to play.

From there, WSU’s intensity to win and their determination on defense made the difference. “The key to the last couple minutes was to keep playing Wright State defense,” said Jerran Young.

Reggie Arceneaux drained a 3-pointer to draw the Raiders even at 48 at the 3:44 mark. His shot ignited an eventual 9-0 game-deciding run for Wright State over the next three minutes. The Green and Gold took the lead for good 50-48 on a Miles Dixon drive to the hoop with 2:39 remaining. A Jerran Young steal and slam-dunk with 1:08 left capped the run, stretching the WSU lead to 54-48. The dunk sent the Raider faithful into frenzy, with the sense that victory was near.

On Richmond’s next possession, a Greg Robbins trey cut the Raider lead to 54-51 with 42 seconds left to play. With Wright State in the double-bonus, it appeared that the Green and Gold were still in command. Unfortunately, it took just two seconds for them to fumble the inbound play out of bounds for a turnover.

The Spiders’ Robbins squared away for another 3-point attempt, but missed. Matt Vest grabbed the rebound and Young was fouled with 17 seconds to go. Young hit both free throws plus another charity toss two seconds later, to seal the 57-51 Raider victory.

Wright State head coach Billy Donlon acknowledged that his team has matured greatly since the beginning of the season. “They’ve bought into the way that they have to win,” Donlon said. “I would love for us to score 85 and win, but this team isn’t ready for that. If your kids buy into the best way that they can win, no matter where you’re coaching or who you’re with … you’re going to win. And that’s what they’ve done.”

Wright State advances to the CBI semifinals on Wednesday night against an opponent (George Mason, Western Michigan, or Santa Clara) to be determined.

UPDATE: WSU will host Santa Clara Wednesday night in a 9pm tip.

Post Game Audio

Dixon and Young

Coach Donlon

Box Score

Photos © and Courtesy of Tim G. Zechar

Raiders top Tulsa 72-52 to advance in CBI tournament

March 21, 2013

By Mike Klingshirn

DAYTON, Ohio – It was a history-making evening at the Ervin J. Nutter Center on Wednesday night, as the Wright State Raiders captured their first ever post-season victory as an NCAA Division I program by defeating the Tulsa Hurricane 72-52 in the first round of the College Basketball Invitational (CBI). A crowd of 2,507 was on hand to witness the event.

With the victory Wright State will host the Richmond Spiders from the Atlantic-10 in the CBI quarterfinals on Monday March 25. Tip-off at the Nutter Center is scheduled for 7:00.

The CBI, a postseason tournament, which began in 2008, is comprised of a 16-team field and hosted at on-campus arenas throughout the country. Past tournament champions have been Pittsburgh (2012), Oregon (2011), Virginia Commonwealth (2010), Oregon State (2009), and this evening’s opponent, Tulsa (2008).

This matchup featured two of the youngest teams in the country. The Wright State Raiders (22-12, 10-6 Horizon League) entered the season with the 11^th youngest roster in the country and no seniors. The Tulsa Hurricane (17-16, 8-8 Conference USA) carried a roster with seven freshmen.

The jitters were evident early for both young teams, as they battled to a 4-4 tie seven minutes into the contest. After six lead changes, Tulsa found themselves on top 12-11, before Reggie Arceneaux hit a trey and Matt Vest scored on a layup off of a turnover to put Wright State on top 16-12.

A traditional three point play on a jumper and free throw by James Woodard pulled Tulsa to within 16-15. That is when the Raiders rattled off eight straight points on a JT Yoho 3-pointer, and a Miles Dixon layup and trey to go up 24-15 with 5:20 left in the half.

Wright State maintained that lead and held a seemingly commanding 32-23 halftime advantage.

The Tulsa Hurricane came out of the locker room with a new-found spirit and aggressiveness. They quickly outscored Wright State 13-4 in the first four minutes of the second half to even the score at 36-36.

“I was mad,” said Wright State head coach Billy Donlon. “I called a quick timeout because that was the only time where I don’t think that we played with intensity. We just allowed Tulsa to run up and down the court. They’re faster than we are. They play the open court game an entire season. We don’t play that way, and so if we were going to play that way, we were going to get run out of our building. I said ‘Make it a half court game and we’ll probably win.’”

The Raiders righted the ship by scoring the game’s next seven points … three on a Joe Bramanti basket under the hoop and free throw, a Yoho runner in the lane, and a pair of Bramanti free throws.

Tulsa answered to draw within 45-43 with 12:15 left to play. The Green and Gold, however, remained calm, played solid defense, and blew out the Hurricane by outscoring them 27-9 the rest of the way. The end result was an impressive 72-52 first round CBI victory.

Wright State hit 26-of-55 shot attempts from the field for the contest. They were 9-of-19 from 3-point land. One key to WSU’s second half performance was the fact that they took just five shot attempts from beyond the arc in the second twenty minutes, as opposed to 14 first half attempts.

“We told them in the locker room that we’ve had games, like Detroit at home, where we have fallen in love with the three point shot,” Donlon said. “Even if we’re making them, we’re a team where the ball has to go in the paint. We have to score with the ball in the paint to win consistently.”

Kendall Griffin (15), Jerran Young (14), and Miles Dixon (12) led the Raiders in scoring. Young pulled down a team high eight rebounds.

CBI History by the Numbers (2008-2012):

Conference records of interest: Atlantic 10 (7-9), Big East (5-3), Conference USA (13-7), Horizon (4-5), MAC (1-5), Missouri Valley (10-8), Pac-12 (19-9), Summit (1-3).

Number of Horizon League teams to participate: 4 — Butler (2012), Green Bay (2009, 2010), Milwaukee (2012), and Valparaiso (2008).

Horizon League records: Butler (2-1), Valparaiso (1-1), Green Bay (1-2), Milwaukee (0-1).

Most CBI wins: Oregon State (7), Oregon (5), Pittsburgh (5), Tulsa (5), VCU (5).

Best all-time CBI coaching records: Shaka Smart (VCU, 5-0), Dana Altman (Oregon, 5-1), Jamie Dixon (Pitt, 5-1), Doug Wojcik (Tulsa, 5-1).

Box Score

Post Game Audio

Coach Donlon

Griffin and Young

Photos © and Courtesy of Tim G. Zechar

Raiders rout YSU in regular season finale

March 2, 2013

By Mike Klingshirn

DAYTON, Ohio – A pair of 11-0 first half runs propelled the Wright State Raiders to a 39-19 halftime advantage, en route to a decisive 72-45 victory over the Youngstown State Penguins on Saturday afternoon at the Nutter Center in front of 3,682.

The victory avenged an earlier loss to the Penguins (16-14, 7-9 HL) that came at the end of a brutal three cities in five days road trip.

WSU’s first 11-0 run allowed the Raiders to take early command at 13-2, just four minutes into the game. Leading 25-17 with 4:17 left before halftime, in a contest that they never trailed, WrightState went on another 11-0 run to go up 36-17 at the 1:07 mark. A JT Yoho trey capped the first half scoring to send WSU into the locker room with a comfortable 39-19 lead.

The story of the first twenty minutes was Wright State’s quickness on defense. They made 12 first half steals, which led to 19 first half points.

“Our energy was great defensively, and that’s how we win,” Matt Vest said. “We kind of lost sight of that the last couple of games, but that’s been our identity all year as a team.”

Youngstown State never threatened after that. The Penguins cut the lead to under twenty points briefly at 47-28, but the Raiders stretched their advantage to as much as 29 on a couple of occasions (67-38 and 70-41), before winning by a final score of 72-45.

“This is something that we really needed,” Vest said. “It gets us feeling pretty good going into the tournament.”

The commanding lead allowed WSU head coach Billy Donlon to empty his bench as early as the 7:31 mark. Jacoby Roddy (6 points), Bobo Drummond (3), Daniel Collie (2), and Stephen Gossard saw significant playing time.

Jerran Young and Matt Vest led eleven Raiders who scored, with 14 and 11 points respectively. AJ Pacher contributed with nine points and seven rebounds in 21 minutes.

Wright State hit 30-of-54 attempts from the floor — 42 points in the paint — for a 55.6 shooting percentage. The Raiders out-rebounded the Penguins 32-23.

Saturday’s win earned Wright State (19-11, 10-6 HL) a first round bye in the Horizon League tournament. The Raiders will play on Friday night at 6:00 against the winner of the Loyola/Youngstown State first round game.

Coach Donlon believes that his team is capable of winning the tournament.

“We can win all the games,” he said. “If UConn can win five games in five days …our kids, with the depth in that locker room … there is no hesitation in my mind that we can win.”

Box score

Post Game Audio

Coach Donlon

Young and Vest

Photos © and Courtesy of Tim G. Zechar

Purple Aces turn the Raiders blue

February 24, 2013

By Mike Klingshirn

DAYTON, Ohio – The Wright State Raiders ventured outside of league play on Saturday afternoon, only to suffer one of their worst defeats of the season, at the hands of the Evansville Purple Aces from the Missouri Valley Conference, by a final score of 70-58. An impressive contingent of a few hundred Evansville fans made the trip to the NutterCenter, helping to lift the number in the house to 3,428.

The Raiders (18-10, 9-5 HL) were without the services of their top two scorers (Reggie Arceneaux and Cole Darling) for the second consecutive game due to injury. Freshman J.T. Yoho did his best to help fill the void by recording his first double-double, scoring twenty points and pulling down eleven rebounds … both career highs. Unfortunately for WrightState, he was one of the few bright spots for his team.

Evansville (16-13, 8-8 MVC) opened the contest by scoring the game’s first nine points, and the Raiders got no closer than five all afternoon long.

“We were absolutely hammered,” said WrightState head coach Billy Donlon. “Sometimes you’re the hammer, and sometimes you’re the nail. Today we were the nail.”

The Aces scored early and often, bolting to a 17-3 lead, just five and a half minutes into the contest. By that time, coach Donlon had already burned two time-outs in an effort to help stem the tide.

“In those time-outs, I thought that we were getting ready to be run out of here. I felt that we were getting ready to be beat by forty,” Donlon said.

“I never call two time-outs in the first five minutes of a game. It wasn’t their motion (offense). It was transition basketball. They (Evansville) just blew it up the floor. They blew by us on one pass in the half court. That’s not motion. We didn’t guard our guard very well.”

It wasn’t until the 11:59 mark of the first half that WrightState sank their first field goal. That came on a Jerran Young put-back off of a missed Matt Vest shot attempt from beyond the arc to make the score 17-5.

Down 21-7, the Raiders went on a 9-0 run to pull within 21-16, but the Aces countered with an 8-0 run of their own, to push the margin back to 29-16 with 6:11 before halftime.

Yoho kept his team within sight of the Aces with a hot shooting hand by scoring eight points over the next six minutes. He had 16 points, in all, before halftime. Still, the Raiders trailed 39-28 at the intermission.

WrightState drew to within 41-36, but six unanswered points by the Aces put Evansville comfortably back on top 47-36 with 15:23 left to play. From there, the Aces maintained a double-digit lead for all but a few seconds over the remainder of the contest. Evansville stretched their lead to 70-52, before the Raiders scored the game’s final six points.

“You have to be so mentally tough when you play a motion team,” Donlon said. “And I just didn’t think that we were there tonight.”

WSU was led in scoring by Yoho (20), Young (11), and Kendall Griffin (10). Matt Vest contributed with six rebounds and five assists.

WrightState returns to Horizon League action on Tuesday evening at UIC.

Injury Updates:

Reggie Arceneaux (concussion) is hopeful for Tuesday.

It is still being determined if or when Cole Darling (foot) will be back.

Box Score

Post Game Audio

Yoho and Griffin

Coach Donlon

Photos © and Courtesy of Tim G. Zechar

#23 drops 23 for WSU but Valpo drops WSU 68-61

February 13, 2013

AJ Pacher stepped up big for WSU Tuesday night against Valpo with 7 points in 12 minutes of first half play and 23 points in 24 total game minutes. Along with 6 rounds, 3 assists and steal, that is one impressive line in the box score. Unfortunately, it was not enough to overcome the power game of Valpo as the Raiders fall to 17-9 (8-5).

It was quite the night in the Nutter Center as at least one of the men in stripes appeared to have chip on his shoulder before the game even started. He allegedly was overheard complaining about the hostile crowds he had to deal with. Given that several students and a platinum seat holder were threatened during the game and a former WSU Board of Trustee was ejected from the game, I’d say someone got up on the wrong side of the bed yesterday. This ejected fan reportedly said something about the “pathetic officiating” but nothing vulgar or personal were part of the comments.

The officials did not impact the game’s outcome but they made themselves visible which is not what a quality crew does; officials should essentially go unnoticed as they do their job.

The Raider bench scored 45 of WSU’s 68 points (Pacher 23, Dixon 13 and Arceneauz 9) while the starting five struggled with 6-19 shooting (31%). As a team WSU shot 41% while Valpo shot 49% for the contest. Both teams struggled behind the arc shooting around 24%.

After playing 4 games in nine days last night, the Raiders are off until Feb 20 when the travel to Cleveland. Then up is the Bracketbuster game against Evansville on Feb. 23, and finally, the last regular season home game against Youngstown on March 2.

Box Score

Post Game Audio

Donlon

Valpo Coach and Kevin Van_Wijk

WSU’s Pacher and Dixon

Photos © and Courtesy of Tim G. Zechar

Déjà vu! Raiders find way to beat Loyola again

February 5, 2013

By Mike Klingshirn

DAYTON, Ohio – It was déjà vu all over again on Monday night at the Nutter Center, where the Wright State Raiders and the Loyola Ramblers met for the second time in nearly three weeks. It would be understandable to excuse the 3,171 in attendance for thinking that they had just witnessed an instant replay. In terms of the score, both contests followed very similar scripts. But on this night, it was a different set of heroes for WrightState who brought home the victory.

In the previous encounter, the Raiders trailed by ten points at the half, cut the margin to a point midway through the second half, only to see Loyola take a seemingly commanding lead with six minutes to play. That’s when the Raiders staged a furious comeback and pulled out a victory in the game’s final seconds. In that game, Reggie Arceneaux was on fire from beyond the arc, hitting six three-pointers and scoring a career-high 29 points. WrightState won that one 62-61.

On this night, the Raiders (15-8 6-4 HL) trailed 34-22 at halftime, pulled to within 39-36 with 12:02 remaining, before Loyola (13-10 3-7 HL) stretched their lead to 53-40 with 6:34 left to play. From there, the Raiders staged another furious comeback, outscoring the Rambles 22-6 down the stretch to and pull out another victory in the closing seconds by a very similar score of 62-59.

Unlike in their first meeting, Reggie Arceneaux was held scoreless. Loyola’s defense clamped down on him and refused to allow Reggie to touch the ball, limiting him to just four shot attempts for the game. However, a slew of Raiders stepped up to play huge roles in this game’s final outcome.

Because the Rambler defense had taken Arceneaux out of the game, coach Donlon substituted him out in favor of Joe Bramanti with about six minutes left to play and the team trailing by double digits. That move marked the beginning of the Raiders comeback.

“Credit our guys,” said head coach Billy Donlon. “After the first ten minutes of the first half, we saw that how we were guarding them wasn’t going to work. So for the rest of the game, we were trying to find ways. With Jarren Young having two fouls in the first half, we had to play without his athleticism.”

Trailing 53-40, WrightState’s comeback began with a layup by Miles Dixon, and a Jarren Young layup off of a Dixon steal. After a Loyola basket, Young and Dixon connected on 3-pointers, followed by a Kendall Griffin layup to quickly close the margin to 55-52 with 3:59 to play.

Loyola scored their final points of the night on a pair of free throws by Cully Brown to put the Ramblers up 59-54 at the 3:11 mark.

With 2:24 remaining, freshman Joe Bramanti, playing the point guard position, took to ball strong to the hoop, hit the bucket, was fouled, and connected on his free throw attempt, drawing WSU to within 59-57.

Ten seconds later, Bramanti stole the ball, and got it to Miles Dixon who was quickly fouled. Dixon hit both free throws to even the score at 59.

The Raider defense came up with another stop and Cole Darling hit a jumper with 1:18 showing on the clock to give the Raiders their first lead in nearly thirty-five minutes of play, when they last led 5-4.

A Miles Dixon free throw with eight seconds remaining made the final score 62-59. Loyola had one last chance to tie the game, but a Cole Darling steal at the buzzer prevented the Ramblers form attempting a shot.

WrightState used the press throughout the contest, resulting in 31 points off of turnovers.

“Over the last two or three games, our confidence was struggling,” Donlon said. “One of the things that a press does is … it makes you stop feeling sorry for yourself. It just makes you play.”

“We came into the game with the idea to press. But early foul trouble limited our numbers and I didn’t want to press and wear us to thin for the rest of the game. And I thought that helped us late.”

Cole Darling led the Raiders with 17 points. Jarren Young added 11. Kendall Griffin had a solid game with eight points, seven assists, and just one turnover in 36 minutes of action. AJ Pacher contributed with nine points.

Up next for Wright State is a trip to Wisconsin, where they will take on the Green Bay Phoenix Thursday night, followed by a game against the Milwaukee Panthers on Saturday.