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Horizon Connection

Ramblers Run Over Raiders

2/23/06
by Bill Kintner

Chicago – When there is road kill in the road, it isn’t because the animal just up and died. It is because it was run over by a vehicle. Tonight at the Loyola’s Gentile Center the Wright State Raiders got run over by a truck called the Ramblers.

The Ramblers out-shot and out-rebounded the Raiders on their way to a 76-63 victory before 2017 happy fans. Loyola (16-10, 7-8 HL) shot 50 percent (24-48) and out- rebounded the Raiders 37-16. Wright State shot 42.9 percent (24-56) for the game.

The first half started out pretty well for the Raiders with Wood hitting two 3-point shots in the first three minutes. At same time Chris Logan put a lay up in and Majak Kou hit a jumper for Loyola to make the score 6-4 Wright State. The score remained close as Wright State (13-13, 8-7 HL) pushed their led to six points on a jumper by DeShaun Wood making the score 25-19 with 4:18 left in the half.

“At one point I said, ‘guys they are in third place and they beat us before. You understand, not everything is going to go your way.’ Some of our guys were frustrated,” explained Loyola Coach Jim Whitesell on what he said to get his team going again.

Loyola then rolled off seven straight points on a lay up by Leon Young, two free throws by J. R. Blount and a 3-pointer by Blake Schilb to make it 26-25 in favor of the Ramblers. Wright State’s Drew Burleson buried a deep 3-pointer to put the Raiders back up by two points with 2:55 left in the half. The Ramblers would then out-score the Raiders 10-2 to lead at the half 36-30.

In the second half the Raiders took just 16 seconds to draw blood when Burleson made a 3-pointer and then after a missed jumper by the Rambler’s Logan and a rebound by Wright State’s Jaron Taylor, Jordan Pleiman put in a lay up to get the Raiders within one point at 36-35. That was as close as the Wright State would get to the Ramblers for the rest of the game.

A jump shot by Schilb put the Ramblers up by three and from there on it was off to the races for Loyola. At the 9:25 mark the Ramblers went up by their largest lead of 20 points on a lay up by Kou.

Wood hit a 3-pointer with 2:06 left to get the Raiders within 11 points at 70-59 and that is as close as they would get to Loyola.

The second half outburst by the Ramblers was explained by Schilb as Loyola being in shape and having the right mind-set to finish strong. “I think we are a great conditioned team, coach gets us in great condition. I think we have the mind-frame it is two halves of basketball. If you go in at the half down or if you go in up, you still have another half to play,” explained Schilb

Loyola put three different players on Wood and he still managed to get 18 points. Pleiman scored 12 points and Burleson put in 11 points. “I though actually we did a pretty good job on DeShaun Wood and he still ended up with a lot of points and six assists,” said a relieved Whitesell.

He continued, “It was really a team win. Tom Levin got a couple of baskets in the second half. Chris Logan defensively ran down some lose balls and he rotated to just beat them to the punch. Patrick Kye had some moments when he played pretty well. When you look at our group we had seven or eight guys who contributed well.”

Loyola was led by Schilb with 24 points and a career high 12 rebounds. Kou scored 12 points and Leon Young put in 10 points.

Game notes:

*The Raiders led 24-20 in points in the paint; the Ramblers led 10-8 in second chance points.

*Wright State’s team left immediately after the game without providing any game comments from the players or Coach Biancardi.

*The Ramblers lead Wright State in the all-time series 14-11.

*Paul Biancardi is now 3-4 all-time versus the Ramblers and Jim Whitesell is 3-1 all-time versus the Raiders.

*Walt Chancellor now has four technical fouls and one intentional foul for the year. If he doesn’t lead the HL, he is definitely near the top.

*Under the heading of “slow start,” with 13 minutes until the start of the game there were only about 100 fans in the Gentile Center. They came pouring in for about the first 10 minutes of the game.

*Wright State’s next game is Saturday 3pm EST at UIC and Loyola plays their next game on Saturday at Youngstown State at 7:05 EST.

Provided compliments of RaiderRoundball.com

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