Road defeat tough to take for Raiders

Nonconference loss means nothing in standings, but Wright State's pride dealt a blow.

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By Marc Katz, Staff Writer 11:18 PM Saturday, February 20, 2010

ATHENS — It was a game that meant nothing, and everything.

It was a nonconference BracketBuster game that meant nothing for the Wright State basketball team’s Horizon League fate, and really wasn’t going to help the Raiders’ national profile.

But Vaughn Duggins, who led the Raiders with 15 points in a 64-59 loss to Ohio University despite shooting poorly, saw the loss Saturday, Feb. 20, at the Convocation Center a little differently.

“It didn’t mean anything in conference play,” said Duggins, who was 5-of-17 from the field and stole the ball down two with less than 30 seconds to play, then gave it right back. “But it was an in-state team. That’s where you’ve got to get your motivation. Beat teams in state. Compete with teams in state to get respect in state. Get our name out there.

“We’ve been able to do that in the past.”

Instead, the Raiders are 18-10 and back to Horizon League play. OU is 15-13 and back to the Mid-American Conference.

It appeared the Raiders would be able to overcome opening the game missing seven of their first eight shots, but no.

They appeared to right themselves, scrambled to a six-point lead with 8:25 to go, then began missing again, many in the paint, while OU’s Armon Bassett came off the bench to score 26, 19 in the second half and 13 in the final 7:30.

“Our offensive discipline was very poor tonight,” WSU coach Brad Brownell said. “We took too many quick shots. For whatever reason, I couldn’t get them to change. There were some plays down the stretch where we got to the rim, we probably have to finish. We didn’t.”

Following six straight games where the Raiders shot at or near 50 percent from the field, they shot only 31.7 percent against the Bobcats, their low for the season.

It was a nonleague road game the Raiders thought they were going to win and didn’t, like the three-point loss at the buzzer to Northeastern or the one-point loss on a missed shot at Miami.

“I think this is going to stick with us for a few days,” Duggins said. “We let it get away.”

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