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Raiders Extinguish the Flames with Record Breaking Defensive Effort 57-31By Mike KlingshirnDayton, OH - Tonight, the Wright State Raiders broke the all-time WSU school record for points allowed in a game by upending the Illinois-Chicago Flames 57-31. It was the third time this season that the Raiders have broken a school record for points allowed. On December 9, they held Toledo to just 35 points in the game. Eight days later, they held Norfolk State to just 12 points in a half. It took nearly 34 years to break both of those records, but this season, establishing new marks for defensive efforts seem commonplace.
January 25, 2009
The defensive effort was keyed by stopping UIC's senior guard Josh Mayo. He entered the game leading the conference in scoring (17.3 ppg). Wright State limited his touches of the ball. He took just two shots in the first half, despite playing the entire 20 minutes. He finished the contest by shooting just 2-of-8, hitting a pair of treys over a 36 second span, early in the second half. Wright State held him scoreless over the other 39 minutes and 24 seconds of the game. Will Graham guarded Mayo the most, although N'Gai Evans and a few others were on him at times. Coach Brownell praised Graham after the game by saying "Will has been in the battles of the Horizon League. He understands what we're trying to do. He makes a lot of good plays that the common fan may miss. He's the glue that holds this team together." Troy Tabler said that the team was on a mission to limit Josh Mayo's touches. When asked about his team's effort, it was pointed out that Mayo had just 2 shot attempts in the first half. Troy responded with a grin, "I'd say that's a pretty good job." Tabler continued by adding "They (UIC) do a lot of dribble and fill behinds to get Mayo 3-point looks, so we tried to take those away." Offensively, the game started slowly for the Wright State. They trailed 9-4 eight minutes into the contest, but showed some maturity. Although the Raiders struggled offensively, they kept playing hard, and then the shots began to fall. The Green and Gold knotted the score 9-9 at 10:43 on a nice steal and lay-up by Troy Tabler, followed by a Tabler shot from beyond the arc. Both teams continued to grind things out. UIC led 13-9 at the 6:43 mark. That's when the Raider defense threw a shut-out at the Flames over the remainder of the half. WSU scored the next 14 points and headed into the locker room with a 23-13 advantage. In terms of scoring, the first half belonged to Todd Brown (13 points) and Troy Tabler (8 points). They were the only Raiders to score until Cooper Land hit a lay-up 5 seconds before the intermission. Wright State continued to apply the stifling defense in the second half. They outscored the UIC 34-18 after the break, and did not allow a Flames field goal over the final 8:30 of the game. The crowd of 5,819 Green and Gold faithful went home happy with a 57-31 victory. Todd Brown led the Raiders in scoring with 23 points. He nearly had a double-double by grabbing 9 rebounds. It marked the first time that any Raider had scored 20 or more points in a game this season. The previous high for a Raider occurred when Cory Cooperwood scored 19 against Central Michigan and Valpo. John David Gardner started the game for Wright State. He had seriously aggravated a hip injury two nights earlier in the Loyola contest. Gardner was with the trainer late Friday night, and it wasn't known if he would play until game time. He played just seven minutes. Coach Brownell said "We knew immediately when we took him out, that's all he had. I thanked him for giving it his best try." John David's status is day-to-day, although it's possible that he may be out of action for a week or more. Wright State's defense held UIC to a shooting percentage of 26%, hitting just 11-of-42 from the field. The Raiders were 23-of-56 for 41%, with 6-of-21 coming from beyond the arc. They also went 5-of-6 from the charity stripe. Although UIC featured the league's leading rebounder in 7-foot senior Scott VanderMeer (8.9 rpg), WSU won the battle of the boards 36-29. Wright State also led in points in the paint (24-12), points off of turnovers (21-8), second chance points (7-2), fast break points (6-2), and bench scoring (28-4). With the victory, Wright State improves to 17-20 in the all-time series record against UIC. As Wright State head coach, Brad Brownell is 5-0 against UIC and 10-0 against the Horizon League Chicago teams (UIC and Loyola). Up next for Wright State (12-8, 6-3 Horizon) will be a trip up I-71 for the return match-ups against Youngstown State (Thurs. Jan. 29 @ 7:30), and Cleveland State (Sat. Jan. 31 @ 7:30). After that, the Raiders close the regular season with six of eight contests at the Nutter Center. Next home gamesThurs. Feb. 5 Valparaiso 7:00Sat. Feb. 7 Butler 7:00 ESPNU Bracket BusterThe ESPNU Bracket Buster contest will be played Saturday February 21 at the Nutter Center. The games set for an ESPN format will be announced Mon. Feb. 2 with other games being announced Feb. 3. For the teams involved in TV games, the time and ESPN format will be released Feb. 9.UIC Head Coach Jimmy CollinsJimmy Collins entered tonight's game at the Nutter Center in his 13th season at the helm of the UIC men's basketball program. Here are some interesting facts about their head coach.
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