Next game
Who: Wis.-Green Bay (17-9, 9-5 Horizon League) at Wright State (16-9, 9-5)
When: 7 p.m. Saturday
Radio: WONE-AM (980)
FAIRBORN — Rob Jeter, Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s coach, likened his Thursday, Feb. 11, Horizon League basketball game to a chess match.
“We mirror each other very well,” said Jeter, whose Panthers lost 68-63 to Wright State at the Nutter Center. “It’s like a chess match. We’ll do something, he’ll (WSU coach Brad Brownell) do something. We’ll go back and forth.”
Brownell agreed.
“They go big and we go big,” Brownell said. “They go small, we go small. Just back and forth to see which guy can get the upper hand a little bit.”
In this game, WSU had to go small a little more than usual because top post reserve Cooper Land injured his knee on Monday and is out for the season.
Still, the Raiders had enough to split the season series with the Panthers and were able to hang on to what had been as much as a nine-point lead with less than six minutes to play.
Milwaukee (13-12, 5-8 HL) finally tied it on a Ja’Rob McCallum jumper with 3:34 to play, then was called for a foul trying to guard N’Gai Evans.
“McCallum made a heck of a defensive stand on N’Gai Evans and a whistle blows,” Jeter said. “And we wait to see which way it’s going to go. They get the break. We didn’t get the break. That was a big, big possession. Sometimes, it’s just a break or two.”
Evans not only made both foul shots for a lead the Raiders would not relinquish, he grabbed a rebound at the other end, then drove for a basket that gave WSU a 65-61 lead with 2:05 to play.
WSU had the lead, but the chess match continued. Two Vaughn Duggins free throws gave the Raiders a 67-63 lead with 18.6 seconds, then Milwaukee’s Ricky Franklin was called for traveling in front of his bench. It was Milwaukee’s last chance.
The win kept the Raiders (16-9 overall) in a third-place tie at 9-5 with Wisconsin-Green Bay (Saturday’s visitor), a half-game behind Cleveland State for the coveted No. 2 seed in the league tournament.
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