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By Marc Katz, Staff Writer 12:27 AM Sunday, December 20, 2009

FAIRBORN — The Wright State men’s basketball team has won a lot of games under coach Brad Brownell, but none of them by more points than the one Saturday, Dec. 19.

“It’s nice to know what that feels like every once in a while,” said Brownell after his team buried Maryland-Eastern Shore 87-46 in front of 4,028 at the Nutter Center. “Our guys were focused defensively. That’s what we talked about before the game.”

That early focus might have hindered the offense. For most of the first seven minutes, UMES led, the last time 9-7 until freshman Darian Cartharn made a 3-point basket to give WSU a 10-9 lead with 13:14 to go.

“We were shaky the first 10 minutes,” Brownell said, “but the last 30, we played really hard.”

In three-plus previous seasons under Brownell, the most a WSU team has won by was 26, the last time last season against Illinois-Chicago. The school record is 66, in 1993 vs. Morehead State.

The Raiders broke a two-game losing streak and went to 7-4 on the season. UMES, which had won three straight, is 3-6.

“We’re an older group and we’ve been in big games already,” said Todd Brown, who led the Raiders with 16 points and also had a couple of steals. “We needed to focus on our defense and our shots would fall for us.”

Early in the first half, Brownell took Brown out when he didn’t think his senior guard was focused enough.

“His energy changed, and that helped us,” Brownell said.

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2157 or mkatz@DaytonDailyNews.com.