Wright State, Northern Kentucky Move on to #MotorCityMadness Championship Game
Joey Yashinsky
No. 1 Wright State 66, No. 4 Green Bay 54
In Monday’s first of two Motor City Madness men’s semifinals, it was the No. 1 seed Wright State Raiders advancing to the championship game after a 66-54 victory over the No. 4 seed Green Bay Phoenix.
Scott Nagy’s trademark lockdown defense was on full display in the opening half. Green Bay had a difficult time finding an offensive rhythm and went the duration of the first half without making a free throw or collecting an offensive rebound.
“Super pleased with our guys for their effort and defense,” Nagy said. “We weren’t great offensively and a lot of that had to do with Green Bay. They’re an incredibly athletic team, really causes problems for us on offense. But defensively, we were incredibly sharp and I thought our players made a lot of the hustle plays.
All-Horizon League Second Team marksman Bill Wampler was on fire right out of the gate, sinking his first four from 3-point land on his way to a game-high 12 halftime points. Fellow All-League performer Loudon Love registered six points and eight boards, helping Wright State secure an important 24-17 rebounding edge at the break.
ShanQuan Hemphill earned all of Green Bay’s free throw attempts in the opening half, but misfired on all four.
The mistake-free Raiders turned it over just three times for the half and jogged to the locker room holding a 33-20 advantage.
Wright State asserted their dominance again to open the second half.
Love made a brilliant feed to Cole Gentry for a corner 3. Then Gentry picked up a steal and dropped a highlight-reel behind-the-back pass to Mark Hughes for a layup and the game’s first 20-point lead.
But Linc Darner’s never-say-die Green Bay team would not go gently into that good night.
Cody Schwartz buried a 3 to bring a little life to the Phoenix sideline. Josh McNair and Hemphill muscled their way into the paint for easy baskets. Schwartz nailed another triple.
All told, it was a 20-3 run for Green Bay that whittled the Raider advantage all the way down to 43-40.
““It was just aggression,” said Green Bay’s All-League senior Sandy Cohen III, on the difference between the two halves. “Being tuned in, locked in. We knew it was do-or-die and that kind of pushed us.”
However, Wright State did not capture last year’s Motor City Madness and this year’s regular season championship by blinking in the game’s biggest moments.
All-Freshman honoree Malachi Smith swished a triple. Senior Parker Ernsthausen did the same from the top of the key. After three consecutive points from Love, the Raiders had rebuilt their lead back to nine, 52-43.
The Phoenix had an opportunity to slice the lead to six, but Hemphill could not convert a free throw. Darner’s team was snakebit from the foul line all night, finishing just 5-of-12 (41.7%).
Green Bay was led by Cohen's 13 points. He also added nine rebounds and five assists, but had a hard time maintaining his trademark high-intensity play after picking up a fourth foul with more than six minutes to play.
“He’s (Cohen) been a big part of our success here,” Darner said. “People say, ‘Well, you’re only losing Sandy.’ He leads us in every statistical category. It’s gonna be really hard to replace him. What we lose in one player for everything that he does is probably as much as all but one or two teams in this league.”
McNair recorded nine points with Hemphill and Trevian Bell chipping in eight apiece.
The defending champion Raiders were paced by Wampler’s 18 points. Love collected a double-double with 10 points and 12 rebounds. Gentry contributed nine points and didn’t commit a turnover in 32 minutes. Smith finished with nine points and six rebounds off the bench.
“I’ve been feeling good shooting the ball these last couple games,” Wampler said. “Coach has the confidence in me, so I’ve just been letting it go.”
Green Bay sees its record drop to 17-16.
With the victory, Wright State (21-12) advances to the title game of the Little Caesars Horizon League Men’s Basketball Championship Tuesday at 7:00 p.m. on ESPN.
No. 2 Northern Kentucky 64, No. 3 Oakland 63
In the final matchup of Monday’s semifinal day at Motor City Madness, it was the No. 2 seed Northern Kentucky Norse advancing to the men’s championship game after a thrilling 64-63 victory over the No. 3 seed Oakland Golden Grizzlies.
This was a game for the ages.
Down 63-61 with 10 seconds to play, John Brannen set up one final play.
Jalen Tate patiently worked the ball up the court, Drew McDonald slipped a screen and popped behind the 3-point line. Tate hit him with a perfect pass and McDonald did what Conference Players of the Year do: he buried a game-winning, last-second shot with his team’s season hanging in the balance.
When did McDonald know the shot was going to fall?
“When I let it go,” McDonald said. “That’s about when I knew it was in. If you could have paused time, I could have told you right then it was going in.”
The game-winning triple erased a wild comeback over the final three minutes for Oakland.
Down 61-50 with less than three minutes to play, Greg Kampe’s team went on a tear.
Jaevin Cumberland nailed a 3. A minute later, he drilled another to cut the deficit to 61-56. Freshman Tray Maddox sank yet another Oakland triple to cut the lead to just two. Maddox pulled down a Cumberland miss with under a minute to go and put it back in for a 61-61 deadlock that seemed like an impossibility just moments before.
Another stop by Oakland led to a pair of Cumberland free throws, completing a 13-0 blitz that put the Golden Grizzlies ahead by two.
And then McDonald shut it all down with one flick of the wrist.
“We didn’t just say, ‘Go for the win,’” Brannen said. “We said let’s put the ball in our playmaker’s hands and let him make the right read. Jalen did exactly that. We slipped out of it exactly like we told Drew to do. If two go with you, throw it back. If not, get downhill. If somebody helps, kick it. Just make the right decision and we’ll live the result.”
At the outset, it looked like Oakland would be the one coasting to a berth in the Horizon League championship game.
The lower-seeded Golden Grizzlies raced out to a 28-11 advantage with a flurry of 3-pointers from all over the court. All-Freshman point guard Braden Norris swished his first two and then Cumberland followed that with three long balls of his own.
But Brannen’s steady Norse bunch started crawling back in the game. All-Horizon League Second Team member Jalen Tate scored a quick eight points as part of an 11-0 NKU spurt.
Two more Oakland threes bumped the lead back to 10, but the Norse chipped away again, this time with their own long-range barrage from Tyler Sharpe and McDonald.
An 11-1 Norse surge to close the half brought the score dead even at the break, 37-37.
Cumberland led all scorers with 16 at the half. All-Conference forward Xavier Hill-Mais pitched in nine points.
The Norse were paced by Sharpe’s 10 opening-half points, including two from beyond the arc.
Kampe’s Golden Grizzlies came focused out of the locker room with consecutive inside hoops from Hill-Mais and Brad Brechting.
But the ever-determined McDonald engineered a personal 6-0 run with three-straight layups. Northern Kentucky led 43-41, its first lead of the game nearly 24 minutes in.
Sophomore Chris Vogt, much like he did in the quarterfinal victory over Detroit Mercy, jumped off the bench and brought a major spark to the Norse. Vogt dominated stretches of the second half, registering eight points, six rebounds and three blocks in the final 20 minutes of play.
Vogt’s inside basket at the 4:07 mark of the second half put the Norse in front 61-50, setting the stage for the many twists and turns to follow.
It was a Horizon League classic that exemplifies perfectly why the term “March Madness” was ever born.
Cumberland topped all scorers in the game with 27. Hill-Mais recorded a double-double with 11 points and 14 rebounds. Norris knocked in three triples to go with a game-high 12 assists while logging a full 40 minutes of court time.
“I think this group grew as good as any group I’ve ever coached and I just hate to see it end,” Kampe said. “Especially that way. I just hate to see it end that way.”
Tate peppered the stat sheet with 14 points, five assists (including the game-winner), and five steals. McDonald paced the Norse with 18 points, but converted just 7-of-21 from the floor.
Lucky for him, his last shot of the night will be the only one anybody will ever remember.
With the defeat, Oakland’s record drops to 16-17.
With the victory, Northern Kentucky (25-8) advances to the title game of the Little Caesars Horizon League Men’s Basketball Championship Tuesday at 7:00 p.m. on ESPN. They will take on defending tournament champion and co-regular season champion Wright State.