Excerpt from the Dayton Daily News
Wright State didn’t get the result it wanted against Arizona in the NCAA tournament Friday night. But if putting up a fight and having a respectable showing count for anything, the Raiders certainly accomplished that in the 87-70 defeat.
They trailed by 16 in the first half and by 11 at halftime. But they cut the deficit to 49-42 on a Grant Basile three-point play with 16:38 left.
The No. 1-seeded Wildcats went on a 15-2 run after that and pushed the lead back to 20, but the Raiders wouldn’t go away, getting as close as 13 before the final buzzer.
Basile had 21 points, Trey Calvin 16 (14 in the first half), Tim Finke 15 and Tanner Holden 12 for the Horizon League champs, who finished 22-14.
Among an ESPN panel of 54 staff members, 29 picked the Wildcats to reach the Final Four, and 14 picked them to win it all. That figure probably would have been higher if starting point guard Kerr Kriisa hadn’t been dealing with an ankle injury (he didn’t play against the Raiders).
Arizona put four players in double figures, led by PAC-12 player of the year Bennedict Mathurin’s 18. But while they shot 55 percent from the field and went 11 of 20 from 3, they were forced into 19 turnovers.
