Jan. 16, 2010

Box Score

Wright State rallied from a nine-point deficit in the final 10 minutes of regulation to force overtime and tied it at 59 with two minutes to go in overtime, but the Milwaukee Panthers outscored the Raiders 8-2 the rest of the way to post a 67-61 Horizon League win at the U.S. Cellular Arena Saturday evening.

Threes from Todd Brown and Cooper Land opened the scoring and WSU eventually went up 21-6 following a N'Gai Evans jumper with 11:14 to go in the first half. The Raider lead was 29-15 after Troy Tabler connected on a three at the 6:28 mark, but Milwaukee closed the half with an 8-2 run to cut the halftime deficit to 31-23.

The Panthers carried that momentum into the second half as they scored the initial 13 points of the period to go up for the first time at 36-31 with 15:28 remaining. Milwaukee later held its biggest lead of the night at 45-36 on a pair of Deonte Roberts foul shots at the 9:59 mark.

A Tabler triple trimmed the margin to 48-45 with 7:19 to go and, after a Ronnie Thomas basket, another three from the junior guard put Wright State back in front 51-50 with 3:09 left.

Thomas hit two foul shots at the 1:08 mark to tie it at 53 and the Raiders had a chance to win it in the closing seconds, but turned the ball over on a shot clock violation, sending the game into overtime.

Land put WSU up one with a foul shot to start the extra period and Wright State again led by one at 57-56 on another Tabler three with 2:35 left, but Milwaukee's Ricky Franklin answered right back with a triple of his own to give the Panthers a two-point edge.

Land tied it at 59 on two foul shots with 1:58 to go, but a foul shot from both Franklin and Ja'Rob McCallum and a James Eayrs three in between put Milwaukee up 64-59 with 38 seconds left.

Vaughn Duggins made it a one-possession game with a layup, but Wright State could get no closer as three Eayrs foul shots closed out the scoring.

The Raiders shot 35 percent for the game as they made just eight of 30 shots in the second half and overtime combined while the Panthers finished at 48 percent as they hit 11 of 19 shots over the final 25 minutes. Milwaukee also made 23 of 33 foul shots, including 19 of 28 in the second half and overtime, compared to 10 of 13 for WSU.

Tabler finished with 18 points, all on three-pointers, off the bench to lead the way for the Raiders while Duggins had 15.

Roberts and Franklin paced four starters in double figures for Milwaukee (11-8, 3-4 Horizon) with 18 points while Eayrs had 14 and Anthony Hill posted a double-double of 12 points and 10 rebounds.

Wright State (11-8, 4-4 Horizon) wraps up the three-game road swing on Saturday, January 23, with a 2:00 matchup at Detroit.