Men’s basketball drops 55-49 decision to UIC

Cole Darling led Wright State with 11 points, but he was the only Raider in double figures. Matt Vest had nine rebounds.

((Contributed by Wright State Athletics))

The Wright State men’s basketball team could not overcome a 12-point halftime deficit as the Raiders fell to UIC 55-49 Saturday night at WSU’s Nutter Center.

JT Yoho put the Raiders up 8-4 with a three at the 14:33 mark of the first half, but the Flames dominated the next nine minutes, going on a 20-2 run in building a 14-point lead.  A Jerran Young jumper and two AJ Pacher foul shots cut the deficit to 10, but Wright State went scoreless the final 4:26 as an Anthony Kelley basket made it 26-14 at the break.

UIC shot 46 percent in the first half compared to just 24 percent for Wright State.

After Josh Crittle opened the second half with a basket to extend the margin back up to 14, the Raiders answered with a 10-1 run, four each by Cole Darling and Kendall Griffin, to make it 29-24 with 14:20 to play.

Wright State came as close as 38-36 on a Darling layup with 5:25 remaining, but could get no closer as UIC’ Marc Brown followed with a three-point play and Gary Talton scored 12 points over the final 4:19.

The Flames shot 41 percent overall and were 20 of 26 from the foul line, 18 of 24 in the seocnd half, while Wright State shot 33 percent for the game, but was just two of 19 from three.  The Raiders were 11 of 13 at the stripe.

Darling led Wright State with 11 points, but he was the only Raider in double figures.  Matt Vest had nine rebounds.

Talton paced all scorers with 18 for UIC (13-8, 4-4 Horizon) while Crittle had 11.

Wright State (14-7, 5-3 Horizon) continues the three-game homestand on Wednesday, January 30, with a 7:00 contest against Detroit.