March 3, 2009

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Valparaiso overcame an 11-0 deficit to lead by one early in the second half, but Wright State followed with a 14-0 run and hit 22 of 27 foul shots the final 20 minutes as the #4 seed Raiders defeated the #9 seed Crusaders 68-56 in first round action of the 2009 Speedway Horizon League Tournament at the Nutter Center Tuesday night.

WSU came out strong, scoring the first 11 points of the contest, five coming from Todd Brown, before Urule Igbavboa hit the second of two foul shots for Valparaiso's first point of the game at the 15:27 mark. The Crusaders closed to within four twice later in the period, though, and after Cooper Land connected on a three with 1:18 left, De'Andre Haskins answered with one of his own to make it 29-23 at the break.

The Raiders shot 44 percent from the floor over the opening 20 minutes compared to 32 percent for the Crusaders.

Valparaiso opened the second half on a 10-3 run to take the lead for the first time at 33-32 with 16:45 remaining. Six of those 10 points came on threes by Jake Diebler, the second one to put the Crusaders in front.

Wright State responded with 14 straight points over a five-minute span, a run that included threes from Land and N'Gai Evans along with a Brown dunk, only to see Valpo cut the deficit to 46-41 with eight unanswered of its own, half coming from Igbavboa.

Two Scott Grote foul shots and another Brown three, however, extended the margin back into double figures and Valparaiso would get no closer than seven the rest of the way as WSU hit 12 of 14 foul shots the final 2:18.

Wright State hit seven of 13 shots in the second half to finish at 47 percent overall while Valparaiso ended up at 34 percent for the contest. The Raiders held a slight 33-28 rebounding advantage.

Grote, who was selected as the U.S. Army Player of the Game, led all scorers with 19 off the bench for the Raiders, 13 coming in the second half as he was nine of 11 from the stripe during the period. Brown added 16 points and Land 15 off the bench as he was a perfect six-for-six from the field, including three three-pointers. Overall, the WSU bench outscored the Valparaiso reserves 37-13.

Rogers and Diebler each had 14 to pace Valparaiso (9-22) while De'Andre Haskins scored 13 off the bench.

Wright State (19-12) will face #5 seed Milwaukee in the second round on Friday, March 6, at 6:00 at Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. The winner of that game will face top-seed Butler in the semifinals on Saturday, March 7, at 7:00, again at Hinkle Fieldhouse.