Men’s Basketball Scoreboard (Jan. 3)
Detroit 74, Milwaukee 59
Wright State 64, Green Bay 53
Home teams controlled play on Thursday night, as Detroit and Wright State collected victories in their respective Horizon League openers.
Detroit 74, Milwaukee 59
Trailing by a point at the half, Detroit found its way offensively in the second half, rolling past visiting Milwaukee, 74-59, on Dick Vitale Court at Calihan Hall.
Detroit (9-5, 1-0 Horizon) raised its 2012 Horizon League Tournament champion banner prior to the game and rediscovered some of the offensive form that helped them to the crown in the second half, outscoring Milwaukee (4-11, 0-1 Horizon) by 16 points in the final 20 minutes of play.
The Titans shot 50 percent in the second half, going 14-of-28 from the floor as five players finished in double figures. A game after the Titans’ starters had all 83 of the team’s points, Evan Bruinsma and Anton Wilson gave Detroit an important 20 points off the bench with 12 and eight points, respectively.
Milwaukee took a 31-30 lead into the half behind Paris Gulley, who had 11 points in the first 20 minutes, including a three-pointer midway through the half that gave the Panthers their largest lead of the game, 19-13.
James Haarsma’s layup at the buzzer sent the Panthers into the locker room with momentum, and early three-pointers to start the second half by Gulley and J.J. Panoske helped Milwaukee hold a one-point lead with 16:37 to go, but dunks on consecutive possessions from Doug Anderson helped swing the game for Detroit.
Anderson’s second of three dunks in the half restored Detroit’s lead, and his third came off an alley-oop from Ray McCallum the put the Titans up, 40-37. Gulley’s fifth of his six three-pointers immediately tied the game.
However, over the next eight minutes, Detroit would go on a 21-4 run to seal the game. McCallum got the run started with a three before Juwan Howard, Jr. would score all six of his points to extend the lead to 51-42 with 12:06 to play.
Detroit would use layups from Nick Minnerath, Bruinsma ahead of free throws by McCallum and Jason Calliste to complete the burst.
McCallum and Calliste led the Titans with 13 points, while Anderson added 12 to match Bruinsma. Minnerath rounded out the quintet with 10.
Gulley had a game-high 22 points, finishing 6-of-11 from three-point range. The rest of the Panthers were 3-of-13 from beyond the arc. Haarsma added 11 for Milwaukee, which finished the game 23-of-65 from the floor.
Detroit will host Green Bay in the Horizon League Network Game of the Week on Saturday at 2 p.m. EST, while Milwaukee will head to Wright State to take on the Raiders at 7 p.m. EST on HLN.
Wright State 64, Green Bay 53
Wright State used an early run to assume a double-digit lead on visiting Green Bay and made it stand up, knocking off the Phoenix, 64-53, at the Nutter Center.
Wright State (10-4, 1-0 Horizon) knocked off Green Bay (6-8, 0-1 Horizon) for the seventh time in the last eight Phoenix trips to Dayton.
Green Bay scored the first four points of the contest on free throws from Greg Mays and Keifer Sykes, but that turned out to be the only lead of the night for the Phoenix as the Raiders quickly tied it on back-to-back Matt Vest dunks before a Reggie Arceneaux three gave Wright State a lead it would not relinquish.
Holding a 9-8 lead after a jumper by Green Bay’s Mays, Wright State went on its decisive run over a seven-minute span, with Miles Dixon and Tavares Sledge each scoring five points. The Raiders maintained a double-digit advantage for most of the remainder of the half before Mays banked in a three in the final seconds to make it 33-24 at the break.
Mays led the Phoenix with seven points of his nine points in the half.
WSU hit 13 of 26 shots in the opening 20 minutes, including four of 10 three-pointers, while the Phoenix shot just 29 percent overall.
Wright State scored the first eight points of the second half to build its biggest lead of the night at 41-24 and Green Bay would get no closer than nine the rest of the way.
The Raiders shot 44 percent for the game compared to 36 percent for the Phoenix and led 30-22 in points in the paint and 10-2 in fast-break points.
Reggie Arceneaux paced WSU with 15 points and eight assists while Sledge had a near double-double of 13 points and nine rebounds. Dixon added 11 points off the bench.
Brennan Cougill led Green Bay with 17 points off the bench while Keifer Sykes had 11.
Wright State will host Milwaukee at 7 p.m. EST on Saturday, honoring its 1983 Division II national championship team, while Green Bay heads to Detroit for the Horizon League Network Game of the Week at 2 p.m. EST.
