The Wright State Lake Campus Men's Basketball team went into their season finale to play Johnson University Florida in the Fifth Place game of Oakland City University's National Invitational Tournament. The game was a tale of two halves for the Lakers. In the first half the Lakers were firing on all cylinders. Quincy Green and Isaac Clay continued their hot play as the Lakers built their lead as big as 15. Green and Clay combined for 29 of the Lakers 49 points. Jordan Gorman controlled the game for the Lakers having 7 points and 5 assists in the first half. The Lakers shot 47.5 percent from the field and grabbed 12 offensive rebounds. The Lakers controlled the hustle points over the Suns 30-14.
In the second half the script flipped for the Lakers. The Lakers were able to keep the Suns at arms length early, but the WSU-LC had trouble finishing possessions which gave the Suns second and third chances at the basket. The Suns grabbed 12 second half offensive rebounds to the Lakers nine. The shots that were falling for the green and gold in the first half were not falling in the second half. The momentum shifted when Nick Passino fouled out on technical foul with 10 minutes remaining. The Suns largest lead was 13 with three minutes to go. The Lakers were able to cut that lead to five with 1 minute to go but could not get any closer. WSU-LC shot an ice cold 27% from the field going 11/41. The Lakers were also ice cold from the free throw line shooting 9/17 from the charity stripe. The 86-76 loss to Johnson moved the Lakers to 13-20 overall and 8-2 in conference while finishing 6th place in the NIT.
Inside the Box Score:
- Quincy Green continued his strong play scoring 22 points on 10/17 shooting
- Isaac Clay and Jordan Gorman combined for 35 points 6 assists and 4 steals
- The Lakers out shot the Suns 30/81 compared to the Suns 30/67
- Suns had the advantage at the free throw line going 22/30 compared to the Lakers 9/17
- WSU-LC had 41 hustle points while Suns had 24 hustle points
What Coach Says:
Coach Richard Westerlund said this about the game, "Today was a roller coaster. We went up 15 points in the first half and everything was clicking, but we never really put them away. We kept allowing them to stay close enough to get back in the ball game. We have struggled to extend leads and put teams away this season when we build big leads. In the first half we did a great job of moving the basketball and working to finish possessions. We limited them to one shot and our defense turned into offense. In the second half we did not finish possessions. In the first five minutes of the second half I think they had four or five offensive rebounds and I think that gave them confidence. Losing Nick Passino hurt as well. Nick brings a lot to the table defensively and rebounding wise for us. Offensively we just could not hit shots. We got some good looks, but could not get them to fall. We had a ton of second chance opportunities but we missed a lot of bunnies." On the season, "Even though we did not finish the season the way we wanted it to, we accomplished a lot this season. We won 13 games which is the most since 2008-2009, we played in our first national tournament, won our first game at the national tournament, we went 8-2 in conference, and we had three academic all americans. I am very proud of our guys and all they've accomplished this season. I am very excited for the future of our program."