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Darling, Raiders find scoring balance

Sophomore guard scores career-high  21 points in WSU victory.

Wright State's Cole Darling tries to dribble around Milwaukee's Tony Meier in the first half of the Raiders' 70-46 win Sunday. Darling scored a career-high 21 points.

E.L. Hubbard/contributed photo Wright State's Cole Darling tries to dribble around Milwaukee's Tony Meier in the first half of the Raiders' 70-46 win Sunday. Darling scored a career-high 21 points.

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By Kyle Nagel, Staff Writer 10:46 PM Sunday, February 12, 2012

FAIRBORN — As he walked out of the interview room Sunday afternoon, Cole Darling was stopped for the question he has heard plenty in the past two weeks: How often have you seen a clip of that shot?

Darling closed the first half of the Raiders’ visit to Butler on Feb. 2 with a 70-foot swish that beat the buzzer, causing many at the game, including ESPN broadcaster Scott Van Pelt, to tweet its nomination for one of the day’s top plays.

But now Darling has a new highlight. The 6-foot-8 sophomore scored a career-high 21 points and tied his career best with nine rebounds as the Raiders used a balanced effort to drub Wisconsin-Milwaukee 70-46 in front of 4,263 at the Nutter Center.

Darling’s previous career best was 13 points, but he blew by that in just 25 minutes while hitting 8-of-13 shots and 4-of-5 free throws.

“He’s certainly not the player he has shown to be throughout this whole season,” said WSU coach Billy Donlon of Darling, who entered averaging 5.5 points and 3.3 rebounds. “This is obviously a high end. We need it to meet somewhere in the middle, and if we do, he’s gonna turn out to finish the year very strong as a sophomore.”

In climbing back into seventh place, WSU (12-15, 7-8) shot 57.1 percent, 7-of-10 from 3-point range and 15-of-17 at the free throw line. Struggling on offense all season to find balance beyond leading scorer Julius Mays, WSU got 14 points from guard Reggie Arceneaux, a career best-tying 13 from guard Vance Hall and 12 from Mays in the team’s best all-around offensive performance this season.

Holding Milwaukee (15-12, 8-7) to 31.8 percent shooting, WSU led 29-22 at halftime and ballooned its lead to 27 points, avenging a 58-38 thrashing at Milwaukee earlier this season.

“We’re feeding off Julius even if he’s not the one scoring,” Darling said. “He’s helping our team, driving the tempo, taking care of the ball. Just having him in the game and moving helps open up everybody else’s games.”

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