DAYTON – Career nights from Alex Huibregtse and Andrew Welage paced the Wright State men's basketball team to a 93-86 Thursday night victory over Milwaukee as the Raiders completed the season sweep over the Panthers.
 
The Raiders look to keep the momentum going on Saturday night when they welcome Green Bay to the Nutter Center for a 7 p.m. tipoff on Homecoming at Wright State.
 
Making his first start of the season and second of his collegiate career, Huibregtse tallied 16 of his career-best 25 points in the second half while Welage notched 15 of his 19 points, a career-high for him, in the opening 20 minutes. The pair combined to hit eight of Wright State's 10 three-pointers, while Trey Calvin (21 points) and AJ Braun (12 points) also finished in double figures scoring.
 
Wright State (12-10, 5-6 Horizon) locked down defensively in the first half, holding Milwaukee (14-7, 8-3 Horizon) to just 38 percent shooting in the opening 20 minutes as the Raiders raced out to a 47-26 halftime lead as Braun, Calvin and Welage all had double figures scoring in the first half.
 
Tight in the first 10 minutes, the Raiders rolled off a 15-2 scoring run behind six points from Braun and a combined nine from the duo of Huibregtse and Welage as Wright State forced Milwaukee into 0-of-3 scoring over the five-minute run while forcing the visiting Panthers into six turnovers. Up 15 with a minute to play in the first half, the Raiders tallied six quick points in the closing 20 seconds thanks to Milwaukee foul and technical that resulted in free throws from Calvin and Braun before a jumper from Huibregtse just ahead of the buzzer.
 
Early in the second half, Wright State pushed the advantage to what turned out to be its largest margin of the night at 24 points and led by 20 with just over six minutes to play before Milwaukee tried to make its push. The visitors cut the lead in half with a 12-2 scoring run over a two-minute stretch as the Raiders led 80-70 at the under-four-minute media timeout. Still a 10-point margin with 2:28 to play, Milwaukee scored eight of nine points to cut the margin to just five at 86-81 with 65 seconds to play, but the Raiders went 7-of-8 from the free throw line in the closing moments to seal the win.
 
Huibregtse connected on 9-of-15 shots overall and was 5-of-10 from three-point range in his second career start, his first since starting the 2020-21 season-opener against Lake Erie. Welage finished the night shooting 6-of-12 with a 3-of-5 mark from deep, while Braun was an efficient 5-of-9 with 10 of his 12 points coming in the opening half. Calvin did most of his damage at the free throw line, going 10-of-11 from the stripe for nearly half of his scoring. Tim Finke just missed out on the double figure scoring with eight points as he added 10 rebounds, while Brandon Noel had a game-best 11 rebounds despite being held scoreless for the first time in his career.
 
The Raiders shot 45 percent overall from the floor (29-65) with a 10-of-26 mark from three-point range (39 percent) as they connected on 10 triples for the second time this season. Milwaukee rebounded to shoot 43 percent overall (28-65) while connecting on 10 threes of its own (10-32, 31 percent). The teams combined for 65 free throws, with the Raiders connecting at a 74 percent clip (25-34) while Milwaukee was 20-of-31 (65 percent) at the stripe.
 
Wright State finished the night forcing Milwaukee into 19 turnovers that the Raiders turned into 30 points, while the Raiders had a 43-39 rebounding edge with 30 defensive boards.