DAYTON – The Wright State men's basketball team hit its first eight second half shots and outscored visiting Milwaukee by 15 points in the second half as the Raiders grabbed a 95-81 home victory on Saturday night inside the Nutter Center.
 
Wright State (10-10, 5-4 Horizon) now gets set for a pair of road games next week to wrap up January, beginning Thursday at Cleveland State, before the Raiders have six of their final nine regular season contests at home inside the Nutter Center down the stretch.
 
Down one at the break, Wright State used the 8-for-8 shooting start in the second half to jump out to an 18-8 run over the first five minutes. The Raiders eventually turned the hot second half start into a 16-for-17 shooting mark as the run pushed to 38-12 and an 81-59 lead with just over eight minutes to go. After shooting 94 percent in that 11-minute stretch, Wright State finished the second half with a 79 percent shooting mark over 20 minutes and connected at 64 percent from the floor overall on the night.
 
Wright State led by five points early in the first half before the opening 20 minutes were all played within a three-point margin and saw four tied scores and eight lead changes. After the Raiders took the lead two minutes into their second half scoring run, they never trailed again in the win.
 
Brandon Noel finished with a game-high 23 points to lead five Raiders in double digits, going 8-for-10 from the floor with a perfect 6-for-6 mark at the free throw line as he added five rebounds, two assists and a steal to his third 20-plus point performance of the season. Tanner Holden was 9-for-12 from the floor on the way to 20 points of his own, also grabbing five rebounds to go along with four assists and a pair of steals. Trey Calvin passed out eight assists as he finished with 18 points, while Alex Huibregtse added 14 points and AJ Braun notched 13 points with three blocks.
 
Wright State was 35-for-55 overall in the win on the way to the 64 percent overall shooting, adding six three-pointers (6-13, 46 percent) and a 19-of-22 mark (86 percent) at the free throw line with 13 made free throws in the opening half. Milwaukee was just 42 percent shooting in the second half as the visitors finished 48 percent overall (31-for-65) from the floor with an 8-for-20 (40 percent) mark from three-point range and a 69 percent free throw mark (11-16).
 
The Raiders passed out 21 assists on their 35 made baskets, the seventh time this season they've had 20 or more assists as a group, while they forced Milwaukee into 16 turnover and tallied 20 points off those takeaways.
 
BJ Freeman finished with 17 points to lead four Milwaukee players in double figures scoring in the loss.