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Raiders drop to 8th place in league with loss

Green Bay snaps its streak of nine straight Nutter Center losses.

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By Kyle Nagel, Staff Writer 12:38 AM Saturday, February 11, 2012

FAIRBORN — The Wright State men’s basketball team had a few numbers working in its favor when Wisconsin-Green Bay visited on Friday night.

The Raiders had beaten the Phoenix nine straight times in the Nutter Center, and Green Bay had not won a road game this season (entering 0-11).

Both ended on Friday.

Playing a close game with a slow offensive pace, Green Bay made all six free throws in the final 58.8 seconds to beat the Raiders 53-48 in front of 4,557 at the Nutter Center.

The loss, WSU’s second against Green Bay this season, dropped the Raiders (11-15, 6-8) past the Phoenix into eighth place in the league.

That’s one spot further removed from the No. 6 spot, the lowest that hosts a first-round league tournament game.

“We got a lot of good looks, and I got a lot of good looks, but it wasn’t falling tonight,” said WSU guard and leading scorer Julius Mays, who scored six points on 2-of-8 shooting as the Raiders shot 41.9 percent.

Green Bay (10-13, 6-7) jumped into seventh place with the help of 14 points and 10 rebounds from sophomore center Alec Brown and 13 points from freshman point guard Keifer Sykes.

WSU countered with early production from senior forward Johann Mpondo, who finished with 12 points and five rebounds, and 12 points by freshman point guard Reggie Arceneaux.

But the Phoenix made the free throws at the end to pull away.

“Green Bay wanted to come in here and do whatever it takes to win,” said WSU coach Billy Donlon.

Both teams had slow offensive starts as Green Bay began with a 9-5 lead. Arceneaux scored eight of 10 WSU points in a stretch that helped the Raiders to a four-point lead, which matched their biggest of the game.

WSU led 24-23 at halftime.

The Raiders pushed to a 29-25 lead with 17:23 left in the game, but that was the last time until the final score that either team led by as many as four points.

Green Bay took the lead for good at 45-44 with 4:04 left on a Sykes basket. An Arceneaux score with 47 seconds left cut the deficit to 49-48, but Brown nabbed an offensive rebound on a miss that turned into two Kam Cerroni free throws with 10.5 seconds left.

On the ensuing possession, Arceneaux lost the ball out of bounds and the Phoenix took advantage with two more free throws for the elusive road victory, particularly at the Nutter Center.

Around the Horizon League: Detroit rallied in the final minutes to top visiting Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Wright State’s opponent on Sunday, 58-57. Tony Meier scored 17 points for Milwaukee as the team’s only player in double figures as the Panthers had 25 turnovers.

Valparaiso (18-8, 11-3) will try to stay in first place when the Crusaders travel to Youngstown State (13-11, 8-6) tonight. Valparaiso has four games remaining and holds a head-to-head tiebreaker against second-place Cleveland State after a road win against CSU on Thursday.

Vest out: WSU sophomore guard Matt Vest missed a second straight game with a left ankle injury. The ankle, which has hobbled Vest all season, was aggravated in a practice Feb. 3.

Stats: Green Bay outrebounded WSU 38-25. ... Mays was 0-of-6 from 3-point range, and the Raiders shot 4-of-15 from long range as a team. ... Four WSU starters — Mays (38), Vance Hall (35), Arceneaux (33) and Mpondo (33) — played at least 33 minutes.

Etc.: The Raiders honored 17 teams that had league championship or NCAA tournament appearance anniversaries this year. The longest anniversary came for the 1976-77 baseball team, which appeared in the NCAA D-II tournament.

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-7389 or knagel@DaytonDailyNews.com.

Next game:

Who: Wisconsin-Milwaukee (15-11, 8-6) at Wright State (11-15, 6-8)

When: 3 p.m. Sunday

TV: Dayton’s CW

Radio: WBZI-FM (100.3), Info 1660 AM

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