Wright State basketball: Raiders hold on to grab road win at IUPUI

Wright State's Trey Calvin drives against a Western Kentucky defender during a game earlier this season. Calvin scored 27 points Sunday in the Raiders' road win at IUPUI. Wright State Athletics photo

Credit: Joseph R. Craven

Credit: Joseph R. Craven

Wright State's Trey Calvin drives against a Western Kentucky defender during a game earlier this season. Calvin scored 27 points Sunday in the Raiders' road win at IUPUI. Wright State Athletics photo

The key for Wright State in playing at IUPUI, which was ranked 360th out of 362 Division-I teams in the NET rankings, was to show up with the right frame of mind and take care of business.

The Raiders may not have been locked in and businesslike for a full 40 minutes, but they pulled out an 83-76 victory Sunday afternoon for their fourth win in their last five Horizon League games.

“We just went on the road and won two games (including at Cleveland State), but you look around the locker room, and it’s like we lost,” coach Scott Nagy said on his post-game radio show.

“It’s hard when you’re playing a team that hasn’t been successful. Everyone ends up doing their own agenda and thinking, ‘I can do anything I want. We’ll win anyway.’ And I get after them, and they get their feelings hurt.

“Their heads were down (afterward), and I said, ‘Hey, we just won on the road. It was tough. We can’t expect that it’s not going to be.’’

The Jaguars cut a 59-41 deficit with 14:24 to go to 61-57 on two free throws by Bryce Monroe with 8:48 left.

Neither team scored again until Brandon Noel made a layup off a Logan Woods assist at 6:38.

But the Jaguars cut the margin again to 68-65 on a Kidtrell Blocker floater with 4:15 to go.

But A.J. Braun scored inside, and Trey Calvin added two free throws for a 72-65 lead with 2:54 left to lift the Raiders out of danger.

They’ve won six of their last eight games to improve to 12-10 overall and 7-4 in the league.

They stayed in the thick of the conference race since every team has at least three losses.

“We didn’t play great in the second half. We got up 18 and just rolled over for a while,” Nagy said.

“We still have a lot of work to do. But it’s hard what we did. … I’m proud they figured out a way to win the game when it got tough.”

Calvin had 27 points and five assists, Noel 20 points and 11 rebounds, Tanner Holden 12 points and eight rebounds and Braun 10 points and nine boards.

Alex Huibregtse, coming off a career-high 32 points at Cleveland State, only took five shots and was held to nine points, but he had a career-high nine assists.

Wright State won the first meeting, 103-74, at the Nutter Center.

Leading the nation in field-goal shooting at 53.7%, the Raiders hit only 49.1%, but they went 8 of 16 on 3′s.

Jlynn Counter scored 19 points and Blocker 18 for IUPUI, which has lost eight of its last nine games to fall to 6-17 overall and 2-10 in the HL.

THURSDAY’S GAME

Youngstown State at Wright State, 9 p.m., ESPNU, 101.5, 1410

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