ARCHDEACON: Donlon vows to bring Raiders a championship
VIDEO: Donlon talks about the loss
BOXSCORE: Final stats from the game
It’s the first tournament championship for the Phoenix (23-12) in 21 years, while Wright State (22-13) came up one game short for the third time in four years.
“The game of basketball is a make and miss game,” WSU coach Billy Donlon said. “We missed some incredibly wide-open shots. We took a lot of things to the rim, we had a lot of open 3s, they didn’t go in. We got a little emotional in the first half when the ball wasn’t going in the basket. And that’s everybody. I was, we all were. It’s just hard because of the stage and the moment.”
Yoho and sophomore guard Mark Alstork, the Raiders’ two leading scorers, combined to miss 16 of their first 17 shots, and WSU couldn’t find anyone else who could score consistently enough to keep pace with the Phoenix, who built all the cushion they would need by shooting 51 percent in the first half and knocking down five of their first seven 3-pointers.
“One guy at the end of the shot clock threw in a right-handed baby hook from the elbow that went in off the backboard,” Donlon said. “They had other guys make a 3 that don’t normally make 3s. They’re making those and we’re not making the wide open ones with some of our best guys.”
Yoho made just 2 of 17 shots for eight points but still was named to the all-tournament team for his performances in the first three rounds to carry the Raiders to the championship game.
Green senior forward Jordan Fouse led Green Bay with 16 points and was named the tournament MVP. Junior guard Charles Cooper scored 15 and senior guard Carrington Love added 10 as they also made the all-tournament team along with Valparaiso’s Alec Peters.
“Wright State’s a good team, but relentless pressure for 40 minutes when you’re playing four games in four days, I felt like we were built for it,” Love said. “We kind of wore them down, and they were tired in the second half. It’s tough to make shots when you’re tired.”
Michael Karena paced WSU with 14 points, and Joe Thomasson added 11 as the Raiders hit just 37.5 percent of their shots (27 of 72) while going 7 of 22 from 3-point range.
Down 12 at the half, WSU fell behind by as many as 19 with 9:41. A late rally got the Raiders within seven in the final minute, but it was just a matter of time before they were forced to watch another team celebrate a trip to the NCAA tournament.
Green Bay’s last tournament title came in 1995, when the Phoenix beat Wright State 73-59 at the Nutter Center to win the Midwestern Collegiate Conference.
Wright State will have to wait and see if one of the other postseason tournaments come calling to continue the careers of seniors Yoho, Karena, Thomasson, Biggie Minnis and Daniel Collie.
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