DAYTON – The Wright State men's basketball team shot 61 percent on Wednesday night as five players had double-digit scoring nights and the Raiders opened Horizon League action with a 103-74 win over IUPUI inside the Nutter Center.
Wright State (3-4, 1-0 Horizon) started slow, missing its first six shots, but finished the first half making 20 of its final 29 shots in the opening period as the Raiders led 43-28 at the break and never looked back against IUPUI (3-5, 0-1 Horizon).
The Raiders now get set to open December at Davidson on Saturday before returning home for four straight home games inside the Nutter Center.
Wednesday, the Raiders tallied two separate scoring runs in the first half to break the game open, first with a four minute, 13-4 run after the slow start to gain separation and then later rolling off a 13-3 stretch over three minutes, combining to shoot 12-of-13 combined over the two runs.
Tanner Holden tallied 13 of his game-high 26 points in the first half as he ended the night shooting 11-of-14 from the floor, adding six rebounds, four steals, three assists and a block to his stuffed stat line in his second 20-plus point performance of the season.
Brandon Noel recorded his first double-double of the season with 17 points and 10 rebounds after tallying 11 double-doubles a season ago, while
Trey Calvin notched 15 points and
AJ Braun added 11 points of his own.
Drey Carter reached double figures for the first time in his career with a 12-point effort off the bench, adding seven rebounds.
Wright State finished the night shooting 61 percent overall (41-of-67) while connecting on eight of 20 three-point attempts (40 percent), six of which came in the second half. The Raiders held IUPUI to 40 percent overall shooting (20-of-50) and a 6-of-13 (46 percent) mark from three-point range, but the visitors were 28-of-36 (78 percent) from the free throw line compared to Wright State's 13-of-19 (68 percent) mark.
The Raiders had a 39-24 overall rebounding edge, including 26 boards on the defensive end, while finishing with a 60-24 advantage in paint points and had 23 points from 13 IUPUI turnovers.
Bryce Monroe finished with 20 points to lead four IUPUI players in double digits in the loss.
