Excerpt from the Dayton Daily News
By Tom Archdeacon
Now that all the locker room and press session attaboys were done, Brandon Noel stood in a side hallway, about to go back out to the Nutter Center court where he knew Thursday night’s post-game embrace would come with a little tough love assessment.
The 6-foot-8 redshirt sophomore forward had just led Wright State to an 82-70 victory over Cleveland State. Not only had he scored a game-high 24 points on 10-for-12 shooting, pulled down nine rebounds and blocked two shots, but he had played stellar defense on the Vikings’ top player, Tristan Enaruna.
He’d held the 6-foot-8 senior — who came into the game averaging 17.9 points and 6.5 rebounds — to eight points and three rebounds, both season lows.
Near the end of the game, the Nutter Center public address man announced Noel as the player of the game.
Afterward, Scott Nagy, Wright State’s head coach, opened his comments to the media with “Brandon played great.”
Now, all that was left for Noel was to head back to courtside, where his mom, Melinda, and his Aunt Ruthie, regulars at every game, waited for him, as did another aunt and uncle and a cousin.
- Read more in the Dayton Daily News
