Men's Basketball Release #18 - Championship Game Preview
March 5, 2007
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For the fourth time in five years, the top two seeds square off in the final game of the Horizon League Men's Basketball Championship. The ErvinJ. Nutter Center in Dayton, Ohio, is the setting Tuesday night (March 6) as second-seeded Butler University takes on the top seed, host Wright State University. Tip-off time is set for 9 p.m. (Eastern time) before a national (ESPN) audience.
The teams split two regular-season meetings, with each team winningon its home floor. Butler made 12 three-pointers on the way to a 73-42victory at Hinkle Fieldhouse on Jan. 6. The Bulldogs raced to a 36-20halftime advantage and rode the 19-point performance of A.J. Graves.The junior had four of those treys, as did Pete Campbell, who finished with 12 points. DaShaun Wood was the lone Raider in double figures with adozen points, but his teammates were just 11-of-32 from the floor on theafternoon.
Wright State exacted revenge at the Nutter Center on Feb. 10, postinga 77-65 triumph. Butler had entered the week as the League's first-everentry into the national top-ten polls, but could not match WSU's intensitybefore a school-record crowd of 10,827 (the highest total for a gamehosted by a League school this season).
Wood scored a game-high 30 points and added seven rebounds andsix assists, leading the Raiders' efficient offense which shot 55 percent(24-of-44) from the floor. Drew Burleson logged a double-double with 16points and ten rebounds, bolstering a Raider charge on the boards whichproduced a 33-22 advantage in that department.
Butler made only five of 26 three-point attempts in the contest, shootingjust 36.1 percent (22-of-61) overall from the floor. Brandon Crone ledthe Bulldogs with 17 points while Green and Campbell added 13 apiece.Graves was the fourth BU player in double figures with ten points butmade only three of 16 shots from the field before fouling out in the closing moments of the game.
The teams shared the regular-season crown with matching 13-3 League records. Wright State is in the championship game for the first time since 1995 (the school's debut campaign in the League) and wouldreach the NCAA Division I Championship for the first time since 1993 (andthe second overall) with a victory, while Butler is after its fifth MCC/Horizon League title---the first since 2001. Only Xavier (six) has won more championships.
Butler is in the championship game for the second year in a row, tryingto avoid becoming only the fourth team to lose in back-to-back finals(Loyola in 1982 and 1983, Saint Louis in 1986 and 1987, Detroit in 2000and 2001). Butler has won the title the last two times WSU hosted thechampionship game (1997 and 2001), and would match Xavier's singleseasonLeague record for victories with a win Tuesday night. XU's Musketeerswent 28-5 and advanced to the NCAA Championship's Sweet 16 in 1989-90.
Wright State reached the final in its first season in the (then) Midwestern Collegiate Conference but fell to UW-Green Bay in 1995. The homestanding Raiders were the eighth seed that year---the lowest-seededteam ever to advance to the final---but knocked off top seed Xavier 71-70in the quarterfinals on the way to the championship game. WSU has notbeen back to the title game since that run, but the Raiders' 22 victories are the most since the program went to Division I in 1987.
Tuesday marks the 11th time (and the fourth in the last five years) thatthe top two teams have reached the final. Six of those have come since1999, and the #2 seed has won six of the first ten showdowns.
Note: For complete statistics, a round-up of the first seven games, and other information on the Championship and its history, please refer to the PDF version of this release.
