Raiders come up short at Butler

The Wright State men's basketball team could not recover from an early 8-0 Butler run as the Bulldogs went on to a 64-53 Horizon League win Thursday night at Hinkle Fieldhouse.

After Reggie Arceneaux tied the game at two with a layup at the 19:15 mark of the first half, Butler followed by scoring the next eight points, half of those coming from Khyle Marshall, to go in front to stay.  WSU cut the margin to 26-21 on an AJ Pacher jumper with 4:59 remaining, only to see the Bulldogs answer with a 9-2 burst in eventually taking a 35-26 halftime lead.

Butler hit 13 of 21 shots in the opening 20 minutes for 62 percent while Wright State shot 42 percent.

Back-to-back Armond Battle three drew the Raiders to within six at 46-40 with 10:21 to play, but the Bulldogs responded with a 10-1 run over the next four minutes to take their biggest lead of the game at 56-41.  WSU would get no closer than 10 the rest of the way.

The shooting percentages were nearly identical as Butler finished at 47 percent compared to 46 percent for Wright State.  The difference, though, came at the foul line as the Bulldogs were 18 of 23, 11 of 13 in the second half, while the Raiders were just four of six for the game.

Battle was the only WSU player to score in double figures as he had 18 points, 12 coming in the second half.  Julius Mays and Pacher each had eight.

Chrishawn Hopkins paced Butler (13-11, 7-5 Horizon) with 13 points while Andrew Smith had 11 and Erik Fromm 10.

Wright State (11-13, 6-6 Horizon) wraps up its trip through the Hoosier State on Saturday at Valparaiso starting at 8:00 Eastern.