WSU rebounds from tough loss, defeats Milwaukee

Eight days after suffering difficult loss to Charlotte, Raiders rebound to rout Milwaukee in league play.


Next game

Who: UW-Green Bay (6-8, 1-2) at Wright State (8-6, 1-1)

When: 1 p.m. Saturday

Radio: WONE-AM (980)

FAIRBORN — Billy Donlon sat down to the postgame interview table, took a long swig from his water bottle and was thinking about how he wanted to start discussing one of Wright State’s most impressive performances of the year.

“For eight days, I haven’t slept because of how guilty I feel for the Charlotte loss,” said Donlon, Wright State’s basketball coach.

“I’ve really struggled as a coach. I take full responsibility for that game, and the coaching staff did a terrific job of making sure my emotions, my feelings didn’t get portrayed to the players.”

Eight days after blowing a 14-point second-half lead in losing to Charlotte, all of the Raiders shook off the stink. Led by a career-high 21 points from senior forward Cooper Land, WSU rolled to a 68-44 defeat of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in front of 3,678 Thursday at the Nutter Center.

In earning their first Horizon League win, the Raiders (8-6, 1-1) shot 56.5 percent from the floor. Point guard N’Gai Evans added 12 points, six assists and six rebounds, and senior Troy Tabler scored 14 points.

Vaughn Duggins, the WSU fifth-year senior and leading scorer who learned earlier this week he has a stress fracture in his back, scored eight points in 20 minutes.

It was an all-around performance after an upsetting meltdown on the road and the holiday break to think about it.

“The big thing we took from the Charlotte game is when you have a team down, you have to finish the job,” said Land, who set his previous career scoring high of 17 points earlier this season.

That’s what Wright State did Thursday. Milwaukee (6-8, 1-2) held its biggest lead at 8-4 before WSU took the lead for good at 21-20 on a Land jumper. The Raiders scored the final seven points of the first half to lead 40-29 at the break.

Continuing the impressive shooting, the Raiders pushed the advantage to a game-high 26 points with 5:09 left and rolled to their biggest margin of victory this season to remain undefeated at home at 7-0. WSU made 7-of-11 3-pointers in the opening half and 11-of-18 in the game.

“When we make 3s,” Donlon said, “we’re a very difficult team to defend.”

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

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