Excerpt from the Dayton Daily News
The start was just awful. But it didn’t define Wright State University’s first-ever basketball game in the National Invitation Tournament.
The visiting Raiders fell behind 16-2 against Clemson on Tuesday night before a spring-break crowd of 1,718 at Littlejohn Coliseum, but rallied to take a six-point lead before falling 75-69.
“We’ve never been a team to give in. I think our season attests to that,” said WSU sophomore center Loudon Love, who collected 14 points and nine rebounds. “Even in our (Horizon League) championship game against Northern Kentucky, we were down 20 and still fought until the last whistle. That’s just something we do naturally.”
That six-point advantage (47-41) came on a Love stickback with 13:55 remaining. Clemson responded with a 14-3 spurt to go up 55-50, though the Raiders would take the lead two more times.
“I was super pleased with our players to bounce back from the kind of start we had,” Wright State coach Scott Nagy said. “We didn’t do a very good job finishing the game, but we’re playing a good team and an incredibly experienced team.”
The second-seeded Tigers, who finished tied for eighth in the Atlantic Coast Conference this year, improved to 20-13 and got double-digit scoring from Marcquise Reed (24), Elijah Thomas (17), David Skara (16) and Clyde Trapp (12).
