The Wright State men's basketball team grabbed control of the game with a 7-3 run to open the second half and eventually led by 18 points on Thursday evening against Cleveland State, eventually claiming a 73-64 victory in front of a national audience on ESPNU. Corey Cooperwood posted a double-double to lead WSU, while Cooper Land led the squad with 14 points in the winning effort.

The game was tied early on as the two teams exchanged field goals over the first ten minutes of the contest, with the scoring changing hands five times and was tied three. The final tie of the contest came at the 11:26 mark when Joe Latas connected on a layup to knot the contest at 12-12, before WSU would make a run to take control of the game.

The Raiders would use an 8-2 spurt over the next three minutes, capped by a Troy Tabler three pointer from the right wing, to push their lead to six at 20-14. WSU would lead by as many as nine when Cooperwood converted on a pair of free throws with 3:00 to play in the opening half.

The Vikings would trim the lead to three points with 90-seconds left in the opening 20 minutes, but Todd Brown made a layup and Scott Grote hit a jumper and made a free throw after being fouled to push WSU back ahead, 36-28 heading into halftime.

Cooperwood paced all scorers in the first half with ten points and grabbed six rebounds. Land tossed in eight points, including a pair of three pointers, while Norris Cole had nine points to pace CSU. Both teams shot the ball well in the opening frame, with WSU connecting on 50-percent of their shots from the field and the Vikings held a shooting percentage of 52.4. WSU held a 9-5 edge at the free throw stripe and lead 11-4 in second chance points.

WSU would push their lead to double digits with a 7-3 run to open the second half, fueled by five points from Land and a pair of free throws from Tabler, to lead 43-31 with 16:54 left in the game. The Vikings wouldn't get much closer from that point on as WSU would hold a double-digit lead for most of the remainder of the contest.

Duggins converted on a layup on a nice pass from N'Gai Evans with 8:17 left and, after being fouled, made a free throw to push WSU's lead 16 points, 57-41. Just 30-second later, Brown hit a pair of free throws to give the Green and Gold their largest lead of the contest at 18 points.

The two teams would play the rest of the contest fairly even, before Cleveland State scored the final seven points of the contests to account for the final margin of nine points, 73-64. The Raiders led by double-digits for over eighteen of the final twenty minutes and ended the contest shooting 51-percent from the field.

A double-double of 13 points and ten rebounds from Cooperwood guided the Raiders, while Land led the squad with 14 points in the contest. Land hit five-of-eight from the field - including three-of-five of three point range - to go along with four rebounds. Evans dished out a game-high five assists and the Raiders assisted on 12 of their 21 baskets in the contest.

Cole led all scorers with 18 points for the Vikings (3-5, 0-1 HL) and each team committed 15 turnovers in the contest.

The Green and Gold improve to 4-2 overall on the season and are now 1-0 in Horizon League play heading into Saturday's tilt with Youngstown State. The Raiders and Penguins will face off at the Nutter Center starting at 7:00 on December 5.