Men beat Green Bay in Horizon League tourney

((Contributed by Wright State Sports Information))

Senior guard Vaughn Duggins led all scorers with 22 points and added seven rebounds in the 60-50 win in the first round of the Horizon League Tournament.

Wright State led by just two with 3:04 to play, but outscored Green Bay 10-2 the rest of the way as the #6 seeded Raiders defeated the #7 seed Phoenix 60-50 in first round action of the Horizon League Tournament Tuesday night at Wright State’s Nutter Center.

WSU led 8-1 after Armond Battle hit a three at the 11:50 mark of the first half and extended the margin to 14-3 on a N’Gai Evans three-point play with 9:30 remaining.  Green Bay, though, rallied back to tie the game at 23 on an Alec Brown basket with 1:45 to play and the Phoenix went into the halftime break up 24-23 on a Rahmon Fletcher foul shot with three seconds left.

Neither team shot well in the opening 20 minutes as Wright State hit for 32 percent and Green Bay 29 percent, but the Phoenix made nine of 11 from the foul line compared to just one for one for the Raiders.

A Brown layup put Green Bay up 36-31 six minutes into the second half until the Raiders went on a 7-2 run to tie the game at 38.  After Vaughn Duggins tied it again at 40 with a layup, WSU scored six straight, four coming from Cooper Land, to take the lead for good.

Back-to-back Brown jumpers drew the Phoenix to within two at 50-48 with 3:04 remaining, but the Raiders put the game out of reach by scoring the next seven points, four of those by Battle.

Green Bay finished with a slightly higher field goal percentage than Wright State (37-36 percent), but the Raiders countered by going 20 of 24 at the foul line in the second half compared to only one of three for the Phoenix.

Duggins led all scorers with 22 points and added seven rebounds while Battle had a season-high 13 off the bench.  Land chipped in 10 and Evans 10.

Brown paced Green Bay (14-18) with 15 points while Jarvis Williams had 10.  Steve Baker had eight points and eight boards off the bench and Daniel Turner collected 12 rebounds.

Wright State (19-13) now faces #3 seed Cleveland State, a 73-61 winner over UIC, in the second round Friday at 6:00 at U.S. Cellular Arena in Milwaukee.