Raiders gut out road win at Milwaukee Friday night

Friday, January 31

Milwaukee, WI

8:00 PM

Wright State University

19-4,9-1Horizon

Milwaukee

10-12,5-5Horizon

Wright St.

Milwaukee

Photo by: Erin Pence

1/31/2020 10:35:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

The Wright State men's basketball team gutted out a 65-61 road victory on Friday night at Milwaukee, despite scoring just 26 first half points and shooting 39 percent for the game. The Raiders closed the night out with nine of the final 13 points over the last 3:15 to close out the victory.

Wright State (19-4, 9-1 Horizon) now continues on its Wisconsin weekend road trip and will take on Green Bay on Sunday afternoon at 2 p.m. ET. Green Bay is now 10-13 overall (5-5 HL) after a Friday night home loss to Northern Kentucky.

Both Wright State and Milwaukee struggled from the floor in the first 20 minutes, with both sides shooting 33 percent in the opening half as the Raiders overcame a slow start to take a 26-19 lead into the locker room. The Raiders came out of the break quickly, scoring the first four points of the second half as they pushed the lead up to between nine and 11 points over the first eight minutes of the second half.

Milwaukee responded, going on a scoring run centered around the 8:57 mark, when Loudon Love got tangled up with the Panthers' Courtney Brown, Jr. After review, Love was handed a flagrant 2 technical foul, and Milwaukee rolled off 10 of the next 12 points to take a two-point lead at 47-45 with 6:44 remaining.

Tied at 57-all with 3:15 remaining after a pair of Bill Wampler free throws, Wright State closed the night out by using a 6-for-8 mark at the free throw line over that closing stretch to grab the win.

The Raiders saw three players finish with double-digit scoring nights, led by Wampler's game-high 19 points, 12 of which came in the second half, to go along with seven rebounds. Tanner Holden scored 11 of his 16 points over the final 20 minutes, including a 7-of-8 mark at the free throw line. Love recorded the night's only double-double, finishing with 16 points and 13 rebounds while adding a block, steal and an assist.

After the 33 percent shooting in the first half, Wright State finished the night at the 39 percent (22-of-56) rate and Milwaukee was at 41 percent (25-of-61) as the teams combined for five made three-point baskets (Wright State: 2-11 / Milwaukee: 3-20). The difference came at the free throw line, as the Raiders made 26 trips to the stripe and connected on 19 (73 percent), while the Panthers made just 10 trips to the line overall (8-10, 80 percent).