Wright State is 1-4 in the Big Dance. Here’s a look back at each game through the coverage of the Dayton Daily News.

March 19, 1993

No. 1 seed Indiana 97, No. 16 Wright State 54

By Chick Ludwig: The bruised and battered Wright State Raiders rode off into the sunset Friday night with the words “The End” stitched across the backs of their jerseys.

WSU’s dream season came to a nightmarish conclusion when the Raiders got run over by the stampeding Indiana Hoosiers, 97-54, in the first round of the 1993 NCAA Midwest Regional Basketball Tournament.

No. 1-ranked and No. 1-seeded Indiana dominated the game in front of 36,003 spectators at the Hoosier Dome and millions more watching on national TV.

The Hoosiers (29-3) will face the Xavier Musketeers (24-5) on Sunday at 12:15 p.m. in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

Indiana shot 56.9 percent from the floor to WSU’s 31.9 percent and the Raiders drowned in a sea of red, falling behind 45-29 at halftime and getting outscored 52-25 in the second half.

Indiana’s 43-point triumph was the widest victory margin in NCAA Midwest Regional history, breaking the old record of 40 set by Cincinnati over DePaul (99-59) in 1960 and Louisville over Kansas State (93-53) in 1968.

“Any loss is tough to swallow, especially any to end a season,” WSU Coach Ralph Underhill said. “But what a season it was.

“I’m proud of what we accomplished this year and in the six years we’ve been Division I.

“It’s obvious why Indiana is No. 1. I wish them luck.”

March 15, 2007

No. 3 seed Pittsburgh 79, No. 14 Wright State 58

By Marc Katz: Wright State played with the big boys Thursday night, and the big boys played with them.

Playing in their first NCAA tournament game since 1993, the Raiders, seeded No. 14, faced No. 13 Pittsburgh, anchored by a 7-foot center and a No. 3 seeding in the first round of the West Regional at HSBC Arena in Buffalo, N.Y.

Within five minutes after the game began, and less than three minutes off the game clock, Pittsburgh held a 13-O lead and Wright State was forced to call a timeout.

That the Raiders eventually caught up with the Big East Panthers on a 3-point DaShaun Wood basket, made little difference for the Horizon League regular-season and tournament champs.

Pitt just started over and ran up the score again on the way to a 79-58 victory, ending the Raiders season at 23-10.

Pittsburgh (28-7) continues and will meet Virginia Commonwealth in round two on Saturday.

“Certainly they made some shots,” WSU coach Brad Brownell said. “When they shoot like that, we’re going to have a hard time.”

Wright State knew Pitt’s 7-foot center Aaron Gray would be a problem and vowed to try to push the Panthers to the outside. Pitt’s first three shots were from 3-point range, all good.

Then Pitt went inside for two more baskets, and the Raiders called time with 17:05 to play.

A little more than a half minute later, WSU freshman Todd Brown scored his team’s fırst basket after seven misses.

Wright State tied the game 22-22 with 8:32 to play. Pitt called timeout, traded turnovers for three minutes and with the score 25-all, ran it up again.

“We rushed shots even though we got a lot of good looks,” said senior DaShaun Wood, who ended his stellar career with 13 points. “We accomplished a lot of things this year, so we’ll be able to keep our heads up.”

March 15, 2018

No. 3 seed Tennessee 73, No. 14 Wright State 47

By Jay Morrison: A Wright State team built on defense was done in by a bigger, stronger and faster one Thursday as Tennessee overpowered the Raiders in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

The Volunteers held WSU to its lowest point total of the season and largest margin of defeat in a 73-47 triumph in a South Region game at the American Airlines Center in Dallas.

“You can’t play as poorly as we did offensively and win an NCAA Tournament game, not against a team like Tennessee,” Raiders coach Scott Nagy said. “We’ve been in some games like this where we’ve played poorly offensively and won, but you’re playing Tennessee. That just isn’t going to happen.

The loss ended the winningest Division I season in WSU history at 25-10, while the Volunteers (26-8) advanced to face the winner of Thursday’s second game between No. 6 Miami and No. 11 Loyola Chicago.

The Raiders first trip to the NCAA Tournament in 11 years started poorly and only got worse against one of the top defenses in the country.

With senior guard and leading scorer Grant Benzinger in a shooting funk and freshman center Loudon Love on the bench with foul trouble for most of the first half, WSU missed 14 of its first 17 shots to fall behind 21-8. And the Raiders never recovered.

Benzinger ended his college career with five points on 2 of 16 shooting, including 1 of 9 from 3-point range.

The Volunteers held him scoreless over the final 24 minutes.

“You’re going to have games like that,” Nagy said. “Grant has had people sticking to him all year, so I don’t think that was any different. I don’t know what to tell you. He just had a tough game offensively.”

March 16, 2022

No. 16 Wright State 93, No. 16 Bryant 82

By Doug Harris: Wright State coach Scott Nagy found out how Super Bowl coaches feel with elongated halftimes tailored for TV, not for the teams.

While there was no pop group performing, the NCAA tournament has 20-minute halves instead of the usual 15. And Nagy said: “They started it about five minutes late, so it was more like 25.”

Not that he was complaining. Nagy was seething after the Raiders let a cozy lead dwindle to two at the break, and he and players desperately needed to regroup before going back into battle.

“I was not happy. I was not happy at all that we were only up two points. We should have been up 10,” he said.

“There were several plays we didn’t finish. We didn’t get back like we should have on defense. I was thankful we had a little more time there so I could get myself calmed down and I didn’t just go in and explode on the players. I rarely do that anyway. But I was fairly turned up tonight.”

Bryant scored the first bucket of the second half on an ally-oop dunk to tie it at 44-all, but the Raiders went on a 10-2 run on their way to a 93-82 victory Wednesday in the First Four at UD Arena.

Tanner Holden scored 37 points, one off his career high, making 11 of 15 field goals and 14 of 16 foul shots. He snagged 11 rebounds and also swished his only 3-point try (not his specialty).

He thoroughly outplayed the nation’s leading scorer, Peter Kiss, who hoisted 25 shots, making 11, on his way to 28 points, three above his average.

Though it was a battle of 16 seeds, that didn’t take the shine off the program’s first NCAA tourney win in its fourth try. During a brief delay for a power outage with 6:27 to go, Raider fans — about half of the 12,500 in attendance — took advantage of the lull in the action by uniting in a “Let’s Go Raiders” chant.

“It’s the first thing I said to the players, ‘(This) hasn’t happened in the Division-I era. This is the first one and it’s always going to be the first one,” Nagy said.

“It’s going to be something — where we did it, how we did it, all those things — it’s a lifetime moment for these guys. And it is for me, too.”

Credit: Denis Poroy

Credit: Denis Poroy

March 18, 2022

No. 1 seed Arizona 87, No. 16 Wright State 70

By Doug Harris: Wright State didn’t get the result it wanted against Arizona in the NCAA tournament Friday night. But if putting up a fight and having a respectable showing count for anything, the Raiders certainly accomplished that in the 87-70 defeat.

They trailed by 16 in the first half and by 11 at halftime. But they cut the deficit to 49-42 on a Grant Basile three-point play with 16:38 left.

The No. 1-seeded Wildcats went on a 15-2 run after that and pushed the lead back to 20, but the Raiders wouldn’t go away, getting as close as 13 before the final buzzer.

Basile had 21 points, Trey Calvin 16 (14 in the first half), Tim Finke 15 and Tanner Holden 12 for the Horizon League champs, who finished 22-14.

Among an ESPN panel of 54 staff members, 29 picked the Wildcats to reach the Final Four, and 14 picked them to win it all. That figure probably would have been higher if starting point guard Kerr Kriisa hadn’t been dealing with an ankle injury (he didn’t play against the Raiders).

Arizona put four players in double figures, led by PAC-12 player of the year Bennedict Mathurin’s 18. But while they shot 55 percent from the field and went 11 of 20 from 3, they were forced into 19 turnovers.

Wright State shot 34.8 percent from the floor and went only 9 of 25 on 3’s, but they committed just six turnovers.

When coach Scott Nagy was interviewed briefly midway through the first half on the national broadcast, he was upset with his squad, saying: “I don’t think we’ve gotten close to an offensive rebound. Our guys are so worried about getting back.”