Burch's career night helps run Raider winning streak to seven

Thursday, January 15

Dayton, OH

7 PM

Wright State University

12-7,7-1Horizon

Youngstown State

9-10,2-6Horizon

Youngstown St.

Wright St.

Photo by: Joseph Craven

Burch's career night helps run Raider winning streak to seven

1/15/2026 9:55:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

DAYTON – The Wright State men's basketball team led for 36 minutes on Thursday night as four players finished with double-digit scoring nights, led by TJ Burch's career-high 24 points, as the Raiders ran their winning streak to seven games with a 93-83 victory over Youngstown State.

Wright State (12-7, 7-1 Horizon) remains atop the Horizon League standings and has won seven straight games for the first time since the middle of the 2021-22 season. The Raiders are back in action next Wednesday as they continue the homestand against Cleveland State in a 7 p.m. tipoff. Fans can follow the all the action several ways – on ESPN2, via live stats or by tuning in to the Wright State Radio Network – 101.5 FM 'The Fridge' and WING 1410 AM. Chris Collins and Jim Brown will have all the play-by-play action on the television and radio feeds.

Thursday night, Wright State scored the first seven points and nine of the opening 12 points overall before Youngstown State (9-10, 2-6 Horizon) found its footing and the sides played even the remainder of the first half as the visitors took a one-point, 43-42 lead into the half. Back-and-forth early in the second half, the Raiders used an 15-5 scoring run to push what was a three-point lead up to 12 points with six minutes to play.

Burch's drive and dish to Sam Alamutu for the dunk with 2:23 to play effectively was the exclamation point, as the Raiders connected on five free throws over the final 75 seconds to keep Youngstown State at arms' length.

Burch poured in his 24 points on a 9-of-14 shooting night, adding five rebounds – also a new career-high – to go along with seven assists and four steals. Kellen Pickett tied a career-high of his own as he tallied 18 points for the second-straight contest and just missed another double-double wit nine rebounds to go with two blocks and a pair of assists.

Dominic Pangonis was 5-of-6 from the floor on the way to 17 points, his most as a Raider, as he tied his career-best scoring output from last January, while Solomon Callaghan turned in 13 of his 15 points in the second half as the final Raider in double figures. Alamutu, making his third start of the season, was solid with eight points and eight rebounds.

Wright State finished the night shooting 53 percent overall (32-of-60) while hitting four of its five three-pointers (5-9, 56 percent) in the second half. The Raiders shot 20 of their 28 free throws over the final 20 minutes as they remained hot at the stripe, going 24-of-28 for and 86 percent mark. Youngstown State shot 56 percent in the first half before the Raiders held them to 40 percent second half shooting as the visitors finished at 47 percent (29-of-62) for the night. Youngstown State hit 14 three-pointers (14-32, 44 percent) and was 79 percent at the free throw line, but only attempted 14 shots at the stripe.

The Raiders outrebounded the visitors, 38-27, and finished with a 48-30 advantage in points from the paint.

Bryson Dawkins led Youngstown State with 19 points and Vladimer Salaridze had 17 points, as Jaiden Haynes, Jason Nelson and Imanuel Zorgvol all had 11 points in the loss for the visitors.