Wright State basketball: Raiders can’t slow down Rockets, fall on road

Wright State's Brandon Noel pulls down a rebound during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game against Kentucky in Lexington, Ky., Monday, Nov. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/James Crisp)

Credit: AP

Credit: AP

Wright State's Brandon Noel pulls down a rebound during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game against Kentucky in Lexington, Ky., Monday, Nov. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/James Crisp)

Wright State’s offense looks to be in midseason form.

What it needs now is for its defense to catch up.

The Raiders played their second straight road game against a Mid-American Conference foe Wednesday, taking on four-time defending regular-season champ Toledo.

And though they climbed out of an early 13-point hole, they never could grab a lead on the way to an 86-77 defeat.

Brandon Noel had 24 points on 11-of-16 shooting with nine rebounds but played only 28 minutes because of foul trouble.

Alex Huibregtse, who was scoreless in the first 12 minutes, had 16 points on 7-of-15 shooting with six rebounds.

No one else scored in double figures.

“I’m incredibly disappointed in our defensive effort and overall physicality. I thought we got ‘boy’d,” coach Clint Sargent said on his post-game radio show.

“I felt we had poor composure tonight to manage some of the swings, and a lot of that is on me — just how I manage the emotion of our team. I thought our guys kept swinging but just could not get over the hump.”

After trailing 33-20 with 4:51 left in the first half, they tied the Rockets at 49-all on a Keaton Norris 3 with 14:35 to go.

But Toledo (2-1) hit three straight shots and went on a 9-2 run — seven points coming from sub Seth Hubbard — to take a 58-51 lead at 11:52.

The Raiders (2-2) cut the deficit to three but quickly fell behind again by nine.

Ranked 346th out of 351 teams in scoring defense last year at 81.2 points allowed per game, the Raiders — coming off a strong second half in winning at Miami — had too many breakdowns.

Toledo, which put five players in double figures, shot 56.1% from the field and went 6 of 13 from 3.

Wright State was 33 of 67 from the field (49.3%) and hit 19 of 32 shots (59.4%) in the second half.

“The difference between this game and the Miami game was we held (the RedHawks) to 32% shooting in the second half. We could not get consecutive stops tonight,” Sargent said.

“They just had their way and were in complete rhythm.”

Three-point shooting has been a deficiency so far this year. The Raiders started 0 of 6 and finished 4 of 16.

They were 5 of 27 at Kentucky, 6 of 17 against. Ohio Christian and 6 of 22 at Miami.

“I thought tonight was a great opportunity to establish ourselves and get the program back to winning against really good opponents on the road. Unfortunately, we’ve got to learn through the pain of making mistakes — all of us,” Sargent said.

SATURDAY’S GAME

Central State at Wright State, 7 p.m., 101.5, 1410

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