Dayton, Ohio – Wright State took advantage of a late field-goal drought by North Dakota as the Raiders rallied for an 83-79 victory over the Fighting Hawks in second-day action of the Men Against Breast Cancer Classic.
Senior Quinton Hooker scored 18 points and Geno Crandall added 17 for UND (3-2), but the Wright State duo of Steven Davis and Grant Benzinger combined for 45 points to lead the Raiders (5-1) to their third-straight win.
Davis scored a game-high 23 points and Benzinger added 22 to help compensate for a season-low 10 points by Mark Alstork, who entered the contest leading the nation in scoring at 29.0 ppg.
The Fighting Hawks held him without a field goal, but Benzinger went 5-for-9 and made four 3-pointers in a game that saw his team erase an eight-point deficit in the first half and a six-point deficit in the closing 10 minutes.
UND went without a field goal over a seven-minute stretch after Drick Bernstine connected on a 16-foot jumper with 9:08 to play. That drought came just after the Raiders went through one of a similar length that saw the Fighting Hawks regain control of the contest after falling behind by six when WSU opened the second half on a 13-5 run.
“I thought we played at a pretty high level tonight against a team that has lost only one game,” UND head coach Brian Jones said. “They are really talented, really tough, physical and Coach (Scott) Nagy really has them running their system well.”
Sophomore Cortez Seales snapped UND's late field-goal drought with a layup at the 1:40 mark, but Wright State had taken a five-point lead by that point and the Fighting Hawks would not get any closer than three points down the stretch.
In the first half, UND built its largest lead 27-18 on a pair of free throws by Hooker, while the Raiders were mired in a 6-minute plus field goal drought. Benzinger would quickly change that when he get hot for the home team and reeled off eight straight points to pull the Raiders within a point in just over a minute of game action.
Hooker would make his first field goal of the half to put UND up 32-28 with 1:54 to play, but WSU would eventually reclaim the lead with five seconds left after Alstork was fouled on a 3-point attempt and buried all three of his free throws.
Hooker would answer in the closing seconds though as he was also fouled on a 3-point attempt. He would make his, however, and add the free throw to give the Fighting Hawks a 36-34 edge at halftime.
Bernstine finished with nine points and a game-high 10 rebounds, but the Raiders would hold a 39-32 edge in that category and Benzinger's four 3-pointers were part of a 9-for-20 effort from beyond the arc for WSU. Hooker went 3-for-6 from beyond the arc, but the rest of the Fighting Hawks were 3-for-10.
The Raiders also hit 32-of-37 free throw attempts and got to the line 14 more times than the visitors, who managed to sink 17-of-23 in the contest.
UND will wrap up play at the MABC Classic with a quick turnaround on Sunday afternoon as the Fighting Hawks will take on Cal-State Bakersfield at 1 p.m. CT.
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