CLEVELAND – Alex Huibregtse scored 28 of his career-high 32 points after halftime as the Wright State men's basketball team went into Cleveland and handed Cleveland State its first home loss of the season with a 107-99 win Thursday night in Horizon League action.
Wright State (11-10, 6-4 Horizon) won for the first time in Cleveland since February 2020, while snapping Cleveland State's (12-9, 5-5 Horizon) 18-game home winning streak that had dated back to last season and spanned 385 days. The Raiders now get set to wrap up January with a 12 p.m. Sunday contest at IUPUI.
On Thursday night, the Raiders trailed by 12 points at the half as Huibregtse had only four points at the break. He poured 18 points over the second 20 minutes and added 10 more in the overtime period to finish the night shooting 10-of-14 from the floor with a 3-of-3 mark from three-point range and was a perfect 9-of-9 from the free throw line, with all nine free throws coming in the second half and overtime. His 32 points marked the fifth time in his career that he tallied 20-plus points, eclipsing his previous mark of 25 points, set almost exactly a year ago to the date on January 26, 2023 against Milwaukee.
The Raiders continually chipped away at the deficit throughout the second half, but Cleveland State had an answer through most of the half and the hosts still led by 10 with just under seven minutes to play in regulation. Wright State rolled off seven straight points, including five from Huibregtse, to cut it to 77-74 with 4:48 to play. A pair of Huibregtse free throws tied the game at 79-all with three minutes to play before Cleveland State was holding on with a three-point lead with 37 seconds to play.
Drey Carter and
Tanner Holden both made one of two free throws in the closing seconds to pull the margin to one point with 25 seconds remaining. Cleveland State's Jayson Woodrich pushed it back to a two-point game with 18 seconds to play but missed his second free throw to set up the Raider opportunity, and Huibregtse calmly hit a jumper to tie the game with nine seconds left and set the game to overtime. In the extra session,
Trey Calvin's four-point play just over a minute into overtime gave the Raiders the lead they would not surrender and Wright State finished off the road win.
Behind Huibregtse's career night, Calvin finished with 27 points and was a perfect 10-of-10 from the free throw stripe while
Tanner Holden finished just shy of a double-double with 12 points and nine rebounds.
AJ Braun and
Brandon Noel each ended the night with nine points of their own.
Wright State finished the win shooting 59 percent from the floor (34-of-58) with a 50 percent (7-of-14) mark from three-point range. The Raiders were 32-of-38 (84 percent) at the free throw line, including going 27-of-32 from the stripe over the second half and overtime. Cleveland State shot 49 percent (37-of-76) overall and was 5-of-17 (29 percent) from three-point range with a 67 percent mark (20-of-30) at the free throw line.
Tristan Enaruna's 28 points led five Cleveland State players in double digits in the loss.
