Feb. 12, 2012

Box Score

DAYTON, Ohio - Cole Darling scored 21 points to lead hot-shooting Wright State to a 70-46 win over the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Sunday afternoon at the Nutter Center.

The Raiders led most of the way in the first half and then opened the second half on a 12-1 run to take complete control of the game.

Milwaukee (15-12, 8-7 Horizon) could never get on track offensively, shooting just 31.8 percent from the field. Tony Meier and Shaquille Boga scored 10 points apiece to lead the Panthers.

The loss drops UWM to sixth-place in the league standings, though Milwaukee remains just one game out of third place with three games to play.

Reggie Arceneaux added 14 points, Vance Hall 13 and Julius Mays 12 for Wright State (12-15, 7-8), which shot a season-high 57.1 percent from the floor.

UWM has not won at Wright State since the 2004-05 season.

"Sometimes the ball is not going to go in, but I thought on both ends of the court we weren't very good," UWM head coach Rob Jeter said. "I've got to take a lot of the blame trying to get the guys prepared. We're not getting the things done that we need to get done. The effort and the energy has to be a constant and it's something that's been good for us all season. We didn't have it today."

The Panthers trailed most of the time over the first 20 minutes. After UWM grabbed an early 7-5 advantage Wright State scored 13 of the next 14 points to go up 18-8. That run came as Milwaukee went almost 10 minutes without a field goal.

The Panthers did recover to pull within 18-12 and then crawled to within 20-15 on a three-pointer by Boga with five minutes remaining. Wright State eventually went back up by as many as 10, leading 29-19 on a three-pointer by Julius Mays. But, Kaylon Williams answered with a three just before the halftime horn, leaving Milwaukee down 29-22 at the half.

The early second-half run was sparked by a three-pointer from Arceneaux and then Hall buried a three to make it 41-23 with 15:10 remaining. From there, Wright State pushed its lead above 20 points and never looked back.

The Panthers now wrap up a stretch of three games in five days by welcoming Cleveland State to the U.S. Cellular Arena Tuesday night. The game tips off at 7 p.m. CST.