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WSU rebounds to puncture Portland

A new day and first victory greet Raiders in second game.

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By Marc Katz, Staff Writer 11:45 PM Saturday, November 14, 2009

SEATTLE — Clouds enveloped the Great Northwest Saturday morning, Nov. 14, but did not cover the Wright State Raiders’ basketball team.

“We woke up this morning,” WSU junior guard Troy Tabler said, “and we had another game. We had another chance to win.”

That’s exactly what the Raiders did, defeating Portland State 75-70 in their second game of the Athletes in Action Classic at Bank of America Arena, home of the No. 14 Washington Huskies, who beat the Raiders by almost the same score, 74-69, Friday night.

There was some concern in the WSU corner that the Raiders would have a small hangover from losing a close game even though Portland State is a formidable opponent, coming off two straight NCAA appearances. It didn’t happen that way at all.

“I could see we were eager in how we were going to bounce back,” said senior forward Cory Cooperwood, who led the Raiders with 19 points. “You can’t do anything about yesterday. In warmups, I could see we were all confident in our shots.”

Neither team scored for almost three minutes when Tabler buried a 3-point shot, leading to five straight 3-pointers for the Raiders as they cruised to a 15-3 lead. Two of the 3-pointers were taken by Todd Brown (who finished with 11 points) and two by reserve Cooper Land, his only baskets of the game.

Tabler finished with 16 points and point guard N’Gai Evans added 11.

Portland State closed the gap in the final seven minutes, cutting the lead to 56-51, then 72-68, but even Melvin Jones with 23 points and two 3-point baskets in the final 1:36 couldn’t overcome the slow start.

“Tonight, we beat an experienced team, and their kid (Jones) got hot,” WSU coach Brad Brownell said. “To their credit, they didn’t give in.”

Contact this reporter at  (937) 225-2157 or  mkatz@DaytonDailyNews.com.

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