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NCAA BB FINAL IN 2ND OT
1ST 2ND 1OT 2OT TOTAL --- --- --- --- ----- WRIGHT ST 36 36 8 10 90 BUTLER (20) 27 45 8 7 87 FINAL IN 2ND OT
HIGH SCORERS: WRIGHT ST - CAIN DOLIBOA 28, VERNARD HOLLINS 27, SETH DOLIBOA 14 BUTLER - RYLAN HAINJE 31, THOMAS JACKSON 26, SCOTT ROBISCH 9
HIGH REBOUND: WRIGHT ST - CAIN DOLIBOA 10, VERNARD HOLLINS 8 BUTLER - RYLAN HAINJE 8, MIKE MONSEREZ 6
HIGH ASSISTS: WRIGHT ST - JESSE DEISTER 5, TWO PLAYERS WITH 3 BUTLER - BRANDON MILLER 4, TWO PLAYERS WITH 3
ATT: 9,056
Box ScoreWRIGHT ST (90) fg ft rb min m-a m-a o-t a pf tp C Doliboa 43 7-12 8-8 3-10 3 2 28 S Doliboa 47 4-12 5-8 0-5 3 3 14 Hope 32 1-1 0-0 1-4 0 4 2 Hollins 47 10-19 4-7 3-8 2 4 27 Deister 41 2-9 4-4 0-3 5 2 8 Bushman 29 3-3 2-3 0-2 1 1 8 Freeman 5 1-1 0-0 0-0 0 0 3 Andrews 6 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 3 0 _______________________________________________ TOTALS 250 28-57 23-30 7-32 14 19 90 _______________________________________________
Percentages: FG-.491, FT-.767. 3-Point Goals: 11-23, .478 (C Doliboa 6-10, S Doliboa 1-3, Hollins 3-4, Deister 0-5, Freeman 1-1). Team rebounds: 4. Blocked shots: 2 (Deister, Bushman). Turnovers: 16 (Hollins 6, C Doliboa 3, Deister 2, S Doliboa 2, Bushman, Freeman). Steals: 2 (Deister, Hollins).
BUTLER (87) fg ft rb min m-a m-a o-t a pf tp Cornette 32 3-6 0-0 2-5 3 5 6 Hainje 45 9-17 11-13 0-8 0 4 31 Robisch 35 4-8 1-2 5-5 1 4 9 Miller 32 2-7 0-0 0-1 4 5 5 Jackson 48 10-21 5-7 0-1 3 2 26 Archey 19 1-4 0-0 1-2 1 2 2 Monserez 36 2-5 2-2 1-6 0 3 8 Walls 3 0-0 0-0 0-1 0 0 0 _______________________________________________ TOTALS 250 31-68 19-24 9-29 12 25 87 _______________________________________________
Percentages: FG-.456, FT-.792. 3-Point Goals: 6-21, .286 (Hainje 2-5, Robisch 0-1, Miller 1-3, Jackson 1-6, Archey 0-1, Monserez 2-5). Team rebounds: 3. Blocked shots: 3 (Cornette 3). Turnovers: 9 (Jackson 3, Cornette 2, Archey, Hainje, Robisch). Steals: 10 (Jackson 3, Hainje 2, Miller 2, Monserez 2, Archey). ____________________________________________ Wright St 36 36 8 10 - 90 Butler 27 45 8 7 - 87 ____________________________________________ Technical fouls: Butler 1 (Cornette). A: 9,056. Officials: Terry Anderson, Rashan Michel, Scott Johnson.
The first overtime saw neither team lead by more than 2 points. They basically exchanged baskets until Seth Doliboa scored and was fouled by Joel Cornette (his fifth). Once again, the Raiders converted the 3-point play with the free throw and held a 79-78 lead. Hainje was fouled and hit a pair of freebies to put Butler back in the lead by a point, but was then called for a blocking foul at the other end, where Hollins hit one of two free throws to tie it up at 80 with 7 seconds left. Butler was unable to score, and it was off to a second overtime period.
Butler scored the first five points in overtime number two, the latter three coming off a Jackson trey that seemed to seal it. But the Raiders refused to die, and quickly scored five straight to tie things up yet again, 85-85. Jackson hit a layup, and Seth Doliboa answered with a 3-pointer to give Wright State an 88-87 lead, one it would not relinquish. The Bulldogs failed to score at their end and were forced to foul Cain Doliboa, who calmly sank both free throws. A desperation 3-pointer by Hainje missed its mark, and the Raiders came away with the hard-fought victory, 90-87.
PLAYER OF THE GAME: Hainje. Rylan sprained his ankle against Indiana and there was some doubt as to whether he would even play. Hainje not only played, but logged 45 out of a possible 50 minutes and gave it everything he had. He finished with a game- and career-high 31 points. He also pulled down 8 rebounds. The miss at the end of regulation was a heart-breaker, but he played his tail off despite a bad ankle, and afterwards Coach Lickliter praised his toughness, calling him a "warrior."
The seniors led the way for the Bulldogs (13-1, 0-1). Jackson finished with 26 points and 3 steals. Robisch added 9 points and 5 rebounds. Mike Monserez had 8 points and 6 rebounds, and played tough defense on Cain Doliboa for the bulk of the second half and both overtimes. Cornette had 6 points, 5 boards, and 3 blocks prior to fouling out, and Miller added 5 points, 4 assists, and no turnovers before he fouled out. Darnell Archey added a basket for 2 points. Cain Doliboa led Wright State with 28 points and 10 rebounds, and Hollins added 27 points and 8 boards.
The first half really put Butler in a bind, and though they were able to get back into the game, they never really seemed to be in sync offensively. The patented 3-man weave was virtually non-existent, and more often than not we forced up bad shots which only compounded the problem. Lickliter said that he struggled finding a way to help his team get back on track offensively, and gave the Raiders credit for playing tough defense. It was also the first time this year the Bulldogs faced serious foul trouble, with two players fouling out and two others (Hainje and Robisch) with four fouls. Rob Walls saw three minutes of play, but the usual seven-man rotation still saw most of the minutes. Hats off to Coach Schilling and the Raiders: they came into a hostile environment and played a great game on both ends of the floor.
The good news for Butler fans is that this loss doesn't end the season. While the win streak and home win streak are now both over, there is plenty of basketball to be played between now and the Horizon League tournament in March. Keep in mind that Butler was 9-5 through 14 games last year, a far cry from 13-1. A tough three-game road trip awaits the Bulldogs, with the first stop at Cleveland State against Rollie Massimino and the Vikings. Game time is Monday, January 7, at 7 p.m. EST.
Little did I know that I would be forced to take a heaping dose of my own medicine so soon after prescribing it for IU, but I have to say that Wright State took it to us and deserved to win the game. They came out with more energy from the start and forced us to play from behind for most of the game, and I never felt comfortable, even at 85-80. I really hate to be negative, but is it just possible that the Iron5+2 are running out of steam? As always, we competed and played hard, but we are not a team which is prone to fouling. In fact, BU has made a trademark of playing tough defense without fouling, so I wonder if part of our foul trouble wasn't fatigue. I was really hoping that the conference season (and particularly the home games) would provide us with the opportunity to develop the bench, and perhaps this is something that we will have to do even if we don't have a comfortable lead. Walls always brings a lot of energy, Curry has been very impressive in his short stints and Lightfoot seems to be quite athletic, and while it's obvious the coaches don't have as much confidence in them, maybe they need to learn by doing. In a game that went on forever, spreading some minutes around might have helped us in the end, and with a brutal stretch on the road coming up, we might not have a choice. While we left bitterly disappointed and drained, it was just wonderful to see the huge crowd at Hinkle. I can only hope that having our winning streak stopped and getting bumped from the polls doesn't derail the extra support, because it makes such a big difference. With the way that WSU played, we might have gone down farther and faster without that home cheering section. It really makes the old barn come alive, and as I suspected, it was as warm as toast in there by the time we got to OT. It is such a great place to see hoops, and while we didn't like the result, just like the championship game at Conseco it was a whale of a college basketball game. I know that there were a lot of WSU fans in attendance, I hope that we showed them the courtesy that they deserved (so lacking from our hosts last week) for making the trip to support their team. While there were about 4000+ people that I was glad to see in Hinkle, one who was sorely missed was David Woods. I'm just a touch superstitious, and I sure wish we could have had our regular beat writer on press row to help us with a little positive mojo in a tough one. In just about every game this year, we have been the team lying in wait, ready to spring on our more highly ranked opponent, disrupt what they do and run our style to near perfection. Wright State must have been watching because that's exactly what they did to us. In fact, we even helped them as others have helped us, by losing our composure and drawing the technical in the first half. As before, we were in a tight game, where just a couple of small things can make the difference, and we could ill afford a bonehead play like that. I dearly hope that this is not indicative of an attitude that we have acquired with the win streak. After the game, on the looong ride home, I remarked that it's obvious that we were not prepared to receive what we had clamored for. We have been asking for more coverage and press row was full with ESPN in the house to do a feature. We have asked for more fan support and the barn was full. We have asked for more respect, and we were ranked in the Top Twenty. With all of our wishes granted, perhaps we felt that a great deal of our work had been done. As we found out against WSU, the greatest part of our work lies ahead of us. With a seven player rotation, we can ill afford not to be firing on all cylinders, and we got a double whammy against WSU. Foul trouble on our big men (technicals count as peronals too) slowed us on a night when we played against an undersized team and could have taken advantage. On top, WSU really took us out of our game, with aggressive face guarding on TJ and step outs that dispruted the weave. I feel that the game was decided by outside shooting, and they forced us into tougher shots and we went 6-21. We had trouble guarding Abel's brother from behind the arc, and he even made a few with a hand right in his face, so hats off to WSU for knocking down 11-23. Despite the fact that they led a parade to the line, I think it was the 33-18 spread on 3 pointers that did us in. There was a lot of physical play and more than a few whistles (and interruptions of play) that left me scratching my head, but the game was still ours to win and we didn't get it done. I don't pretend to understand psychology, but maybe this will take the pressure off and get us back into the underdog mentality. It is clear that we had difficulty handling being the favorite, so perhaps we'll do better now that we're no longer unbeaten. It's also clear that we have to play very well to win every game, even those in the Sunset league. Our margin for error is not very great, and we have to play with humility and respect for every opponent if we want to succeed and ultimately win. I would love to see us develop a deeper rotation which might provide greater lineup flexibility. I think Walls and Curry in particular might have given WSU something to chew on, and one thing is for sure, those guys are truly un-scouted and could really sneak up some teams, unlike the Iron5+2. Here's hoping that we get back on track and TCB on the road. I would love to welcome back these Dogs after they keep Rollie at 500, snap the Detroit streak and defrost the Penguins with a huge crowd in Hinkle against WGB. Adversity defines character, and I hope that we can turn a bitter loss into some sweet victories. War Dogs !
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