Raiders Hit the Titans with Their Best Shot 61-48

Photos © and Courtesy of Tim G. Zechar

February 15, 2009
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Wright State's defense set the tone from the beginning of the contest. Detroit was unable to hit a field goal over the first 9:43 of action. The Titans could muster just four points until seven minutes remained in the first half. Wright State led 17-9 at the 6:18 mark. That's when Todd Brown caught fire. He hit 3 treys and a lay-up for the next 11 Raider points, to quickly put Wright State ahead by a score of 28-13 with 1:50 to play before the intermission.

The first half did not end without excitement. With 42 seconds to play, Detroit's 7-foot-3 center Jason Bennett fouled Scott Grote hard, going over his back. The two players hit the floor with Grote in a head lock. A scuffle ensued. After Grote and Bennett were separated, the referees reviewed the play on a courtside monitor to assess possible technical fouls. Pat Benatar's "Hit Me with Your Best Shot" played over the Nutter Center PA system during the pause in the action. Upon review, a foul was issued to Bennett, and a double technical foul was called on both players. Grote hit both free throws for Bennett's over the back foul, and the Raiders took a 32-15 lead into the locker room.

Todd Brown's 15 first half points matched the halftime scoring total for entire Detroit team. In the half, Brown shot 5-of 6 from the field, including 3-of-4 from beyond the arc.

Wright State put this game out of reach early in half number two. Four different Raiders chipped in to score the first 14 points after the break to build a 46-22 WSU advantage with 15:14 to play. The two teams slugged it out over the final 15 minutes, as the Raiders eventually won by a final score of 61-48.

A crowd of 5,891 witnessed another outstanding defensive effort by the Raiders. "There's a reason that Wright State's the number two defensive team in the country." said Detroit head coach Ray McCallum. "Their defense is just smothering. They help and rotate. They communicate well, and are a well oiled machine on the defensive side of the ball." He continued by saying "It was 14-4 with 7 minutes to go (before halftime). We couldn't score. Their defense had a lot to do with it."

The contest was a bruising battle. Wright State's Will Graham said "They (Detroit) like to lay their weight on you. They like to work a high-low offense. At the end of the game, we were tired from their big guys putting all of that non-moving weight on us, but our big guys did a good job."

Brownell thought that the play of Ronnie Thomas was instrumental in the victory. He said "Ronnie's been good coming off of the bench. Ronnie does a lot of things in games like tonight, where he guards bigger post players better than some of our other guys. His positioning and experience is better, and has more weight to keep guys a little farther away from the basket."

The Green and Gold were led in scoring by Todd Brown's 17 points. Will Graham added 10, and Ronnie Thomas scored a season high with 9 points. Others Raiders to score were Tabler (8 points), Cooperwood (6), Horne (5), Grote (4), land (1), and Evans (1).

Wright State hit 21-of-53 shots from the field for 39%. They were 6-of-18 from beyond the arc, and 13-of-17 for 76% from the free throw line. The Raiders led in points in the paint (26-18), points off of turnovers (21-8), and bench scoring (22-17). Detroit won the rebounding battle 37-23. The Green and Gold forced 22 Titan turnovers. Wright State had 13 assists, while turning the ball over 10 times.

Will Graham dished out 6 assists, giving him a career total of 299. Tonight also mark the 117th game that Will has played for the Raiders, moving into a tie for fourth place on the school's all-time list in that category. Jordan Pleiman holds the record with 122 games played at Wright State.

Wright State's all-time record against Detroit improved to 17-19. The Raiders are 7-0 against the Titans under coach Brownell.

With a pair of victories this week, the Raiders have quietly moved to within one game of the second place Green Bay Phoenix, with 3 league games to be played. The Phoenix will be Wright State's final opponent of the season on February 28 at the Nutter Center.

By improving to 10-5 in the league, Wright State has a 9-0 record against the five teams in the bottom half of the Horizon League standings. They are 1-5 against the league's top teams.

The Raiders (16-10, 10-5 Horizon) will travel to Chicago for the second time in eight days, to take on the UIC Flames. As Raiders head coach, Brad Brownell is 11-0 against the Chicago Horizon League teams. He'll try to make it 12 straight Wednesday night. Game time locally is 8 pm.

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