Raiders look to stay hot against Oakland on Saturday night

Saturday, February 5

Dayton, OH

7:00 PM

Wright State University

Oakland

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Photo by: Jessica Roberts

Raiders look to stay hot against Oakland on Saturday night

2/5/2022 11:45:00 AM | Men's Basketball

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DAYTON - The Wright State men's basketball team is set for its second game in as many nights on Saturday as the Raiders welcome Oakland to the Nutter Center for a 7 p.m. tipoff. Wright State is coming off a Friday night victory over Detroit Mercy while Oakland fell in overtime on Friday down at Northern Kentucky.

Fans can follow the action several ways - via live stats, by watching on ESPN+ or by tuning in on WONE 980 AM. Chris Collins and Jim Brown will have all the play-by-play on the radio and ESPN feeds.

SATURDAY: WATCH ON ESPN+ | FOLLOW LIVE STATS | LISTEN ON WONE 980 AM | GAME NOTES

LAST TIME OUT
Wright State went on a 14-point run late in the first half Friday night and never looked back, downing visiting Detroit Mercy 90-59 as five Raiders finished in double-figures. Wright State tallied the 14 straight points over a four-and-a-half-minute stretch and closed the first half on an 18-5 run overall. Grant Basile scored 14 of his game-high 29 points in the first half and finished the night shooting 12-of-15 from the floor with a 5-of-6 mark from the free throw line. He added a game-best eight rebounds as he became the 22nd member of Wright State's 500 rebound club. Tanner Holden finished with 15 points and AJ Braun, Trey Calvin and Andrew Welage all finished with 11 points.

OAKLAND ORIGINALS
Oakland is 16-6 overall with a 9-2 Horizon League record, but comes into the Nutter Center following a Friday night overtime loss down at Northern Kentucky. Oakland is 7-0 at home this season but only 6-5 in true road contests entering Saturday night. The teams split the back-to-back series last season in Rochester, MI with the Raiders taking the Friday night contest before Oakland bounced back in the second game. Wright State and Oakland have previously met 24 times, with the Raiders leading the series 16-8. The teams first met back on Nov. 29, 1977 – a Raider victory – and the teams also met in Jan. 1979 and Dec. 1979 but then didn't face each other again until Dec. 2000. Wright State also handed Oakland a loss in the Golden Grizzlies' first-ever Horizon League contest, played Jan. 2, 2014 inside the Nutter Center.

GOLDEN GRIZZLIES
Oakland is 16-6 overall with a 9-2 Horizon League record, but saw its three-game winning streak snapped on Friday night in an overtime loss to Northern Kentucky. Oakland has now lost two of its last three road contests, at NKU and Milwaukee (Jan. 20) and is 6-5 in true road contests this season. Jamal Cain is the Golden Grizzlies' leader in two categories, scoring (19.9 ppg) and rebounding (10.3 rpg). Cain tallied his 1,000th career point against UIC on Jan. 29. Oakland is shooting 44.2% (589-1332) from the field as the team is fifth in the country in free throw percentage at 80.14% (335-418).

NATIONAL ATTENTION
Tanner Holden (81% FT) has made 138 free throws on 170 total attempts, both of which lead the country through Friday's games. Holden's 475 total points scored is No. 5 in the country, while his 20.7 points per game average is No. 14 nationally. Grant Basile's rebound work is also among the best in the nation: ranking 25th nationally with 198 total rebounds, No. 37 nationally in total rebounds/game average with his 8.6 boards per contest and No. 50 in the country with his 6.17 defensive rebounds/game average.

SLUMP BUSTED
Grant Basile has broken out of a recent scoring slump in a big way, tallying 21 points on Jan. 30 against Purdue Fort Wayne before a 29-point effort on Feb. 4 against Detroit Mercy. Basile's 29 points against Detroit Mercy were his most this season behind his career-best 37 points at Marshall back in November, and he now has 10 games with 20 or more points this season while he's found double figures in 20 of 23 contests to date.

BASILE BOARDS
With his first rebound of the night on Feb. 4 against Detroit Mercy, Grant Basile became the 22nd Raider all-time to reach 500 career rebounds, joining teammate Tanner Holden from earlier this season. Basile is averaging nearly nine rebounds a contest this season and pulled down a career-best 16 rebounds at NC State on Dec. 21.

D-D-D-DEFENSE
Wright State held Detroit Mercy to just 59 points on Feb. 4, its fourth-lowest scoring total of the season (Lake Erie, IUPUI x2), while the Raiders forced Detroit Mercy into just 33.9 percent shooting - the lowest of any Division I opponents this season (Lake Erie - 29.4%). Detroit Mercy's Antoine Davis, who entered the Feb. 4 contest leading the country with a 24.0 points per game average, was held to only 15 points - his lowest scoring output of the season. Davis' career low of 10 points came against Wright State on Dec. 20, 2020, and he had only 10 points until the final 5:45 of game action on Feb. 4, when the game's result was already in hand.