The Wright State Lakers had their first game of the new year against Miami Hamilton Sunday afternoon. Both teams came in hot in their recent games as the Lakers had won 5 of 6 and the Harriers 5 of their last 7. The contest started back and forth but unfortunately for the Lakers foul trouble would hit them early, both Jalen Huff and Tyrone Auzenne Jr. were saddled to the bench with foul trouble much of the first half. The Lakers were led by Quincy Green and Jordan Gorman in the first half but the home team had no answer for the Harriers Chwon Hill who had 16 of his 29 points in the first half. Hill dominated the half on the boards and on the defensive end with his energy. In the second half the Harriers continued to build their lead and led by as much 22 points with 11 minutes remaining. The Lakers woke up and started to pressure and made the Harriers get out of sorts on the offensive side. The Lakers fought their way back into the game cutting the lead 76-72 with three minutes to go. Lakers had chances forcing missed shots and turnovers to cut into lead deeper but could not get any closer as the Harriers Brandon Burnside nailed a dagger from 3 in the corner to extend lead to 7 and ended the Lakers comeback bid.

Inside the Box Score:

• Cold Night: the Lakers shot 35 percent from the field while the Harriers shot a hot 47 percent from the field
• The Lakers hit 11 3's on the night, their fourth time this season hitting double digit 3s
• Quincy Green had a career high 19 points
• Foul Differential: The Lakers were called for 26 fouls while the Harriers were called for just 15 fouls

What Coach Says:

Coach Richard Westerlund said this about tonight, "We have to play 40 minutes of basketball. The last ten minutes we played with the urgency necessary to win a game and were able to fight back from 22 down, I was proud of our guys for that ten minutes but we need much more than ten minutes. Our foul trouble hurt us tonight a lot. Huff and Ty are two very big parts of our success and not having them definitely impacted our game a little bit, but we need other guys to step up." On Chwon Hill, "Hill was all over the place for Miami Hamilton. He just was a man out there today, and our guys did not match his energy. His presence was felt all over the floor." On Quincy Green's play, "I was really proud of Q. He has been staying in the gym working his tail off and he was due for a nice game. We are going to need more games like these from him." On four conference games upcoming this week, "This is a massive week for our team, but we have to have focus on one at a time. Our next game is tuesday at Andrews. It will not be easy task, but we will be focused on rebounding from this loss."

Who is Next:

Tuesaday January 9th at #19 Andrews Universisty 7:30pm tip-off.