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Home > Blogs > Wright State University sports > Archives > 2009 > December > 04
Friday, December 4, 2009
Raiders come through vs. CSU
FAIRBORN — Way too early to tell how good this Wright State basketball team will be, but there were some good signs on Thursday night when the Raiders beat Cleveland State 73-64 to begin Horizon League play at the Nutter Center.
First of all, on the first play of the game, CSU’s big Aaron Pogue — a Dayton Dunbar grad — ran into WSU’s Ronnie Thomas, who felt a twinge in his back he hadn’t felt since high school.
Thomas ended up playing five minutes and made one of his two baskets, but he didn’t get any rebounds and when trainer Jason Franklin was working on Thomas in the training room at halftime, WSU coach Brad Brownell sent word in, “Hey, we need him in the second half.”
Turns out the Raiders didn’t. Cory Cooperwood came down with 10 rebounds and added 13 points and Todd Brown went for seven rebounds and nine points.
Meanwhile, Cooper Land was being left alone on the perimeter, so he hit three of his five 3-point shots to end with 14 points. Vaughn Duggins, who didn’t start because he had a sore knee that kept him out of most practice this week, came off the bench to score 10 and his replacement, Troy Tabler, also scored 10.
Even without Thomas, the plan to outrebound CSU worked, 29-25, and the final score was much closer than it needed to be. Wright State led by 18 with four minutes to go and by 15 with 52 seconds left when CSU refused to stop playing.
Land has had big scoring games before, but only one other double-figure game this season, 12 points in the opener at Washington.
“Honestly, for me, we have guys like Vaughn and Todd for other teams to concentrate on,” Land said. “They’re our best players. They have to worry about those guys so much, I get left open. That’s how it should be.”
Land was left so wide open for one 3-point shot in the first half, it was almost like he was alone on the court.
It’s good all this happened without Thomas being able to play much and with Duggins at a tick less than full go, but the team will certainly need both at full strength in the coming weeks if it is really going to contend for the HL title.
“We’re in first place for a day,” Brownell said. “We played very good defense. The two keys in our rebounding tonight were Cory Cooperwood and Todd Brown.”
The Raiders tried to go inside on Pogue and were successful. Pogue fouled out after scoring four points and grabbing five rebounds. Norris Cole, the other Dunbar grad at CSU, finished with a game-high 18 points. He also had four assists, but five turnovers as well.
Saturday, the Raiders will try for two straight as Youngstown State visits for a 7 p.m. game.
