Courtesy | Wright State Athletics
Wright State graduate senior Isabelle Bolender was the final Horizon League Player of the Week in the regular season.
INDIANAPOLIS — Wright State’s Isabelle Bolender was named the Horizon League Player of the Week after her performances in the Raiders’ final two games of the regular season.
Bolender, a Cedarville native, helped the Raiders close the regular season with back-to-back wins, averaging 24.0 points, 3.5 rebounds, 3.0 assists, and 1.5 steals per game. The senior guard shot 61.9 percent (13-of-21) from the field, 60% (9-of-15) on 3-pointers, and 91.7% (11-of-12) on free throws over the two-game stretch.
She opened the week with a team-leading 23 points, four assists, three rebounds, and two steals in WSU’s 83-75 victory over Oakland at home. She followed with a Senior Day celebration victory against Detroit Mercy with a career-high 25 points, going 7-of-12 on field goals, 5-of-8 from deep, and 6-of-6 at the charity stripe.
Bolender was one of two players to start in all 30 games for the Raiders in the regular season, averaging 8.8 points, 3.0 rebounds, and 1.6 assists per contest.
Noel’s double-double helps guide Raiders to HL quarterfinals
FAIRBORN — Brandon Noel tallied his 11th double-double of the season with a 20-point, 16-rebound effort to lead three Raiders in double figures as the No. 7-seeded Wright State men’s basketball team advanced to the quarterfinals with a 77-57 victory over No. 10 Green Bay in the opening round of the 2023 Barbasol Horizon League Championship inside the Nutter Center Thursday night.
With the win, Wright State (18-14) advances to take on No. 2 Milwaukee on Thursday night in Wisconsin in quarterfinal action. Tipoff time is set for 8 p.m. with ESPN+ broadcasting the game.
The Raiders led for just shy of 38 minutes on Tuesday but were unable to go on a sustained scoring run to put the game out of reach for the majority of the night as Green Bay (3-29) saw three double-digit scorers of its own to hang around just within arm’s reach.
Wright State were up 35-27 at the break after closing the first half by scoring eight of the last 11 points heading into the locker room. The Raiders quickly pushed the advantage to 12 in the early moments of the second half before Green Bay chipped away, cutting the margin to just seven on three occasions, the last of which came at the 12:07 mark with Wright State leading 52-45. The Raiders responded with a 12-5 run over the next six minutes to gain complete control, pushing the advantage back to double digits with a Noel layup at the 9:07 mark and never looking back.
Noel tallied 15 of his game-high 20 points in the second half as he notched his 22nd game this season with 20 or more points while going 8-of-11 from the floor and adding two assists, two blocks and a steal to his double-double mark. Trey Calvin got the Raiders rolling early with nine of his 14 points in the first half, while Tim Finke connected on a trio of three-pointers on the way to his 13 points and seven rebounds.
Nine different Raiders found the scoring column in the win as eight players tallied a rebound, with Wright State ending the night owning a 42-20 rebounding edge including 33 rebounds on the defensive end.
Wright State shot 59 percent in the second half on the way to finishing the night shooting 52 percent overall (29-56) with nine total three-pointers (9-19, 47 percent). Green Bay was limited to 36 percent shooting (20-55) while the visitors were 8-of-25 from three-point range (32 percent).
Corder, Goecke tie for second individually as Raiders finish third in Arizona
GOODYEAR, Ariz. — The Wright State golf team finished third as a group at the Loyola Intercollegiate in Arizona, as Cole Corder and Tyler Goecke tied for second individually.
The Raiders began the final round one shot ahead of Marquette and Utah Valley and led at the turn Tuesday before finishing with a 280 final round team total and an eight-under score to finish the week 18-under overall, three shots back of team champion Utah Valley (-21) and two back of Marquette (-20).
Corder was tied for third after 36 holes and recorded four birdies and a hole-in-one on the par three eighth hole as part of his first nine holes Tuesday before his final nine holes featured two more birdies, along with three bogeys and a triple bogey as he carded a two-under final round 70 to finish nine-under overall in the tie for second.
Goecke was two shots back of Corder in a tie for fifth entering the day and turned in a clean card with a pair of birdies and an eagle on the par five 14th for his four-under 68 as he ended the tournament nine-under as well.
Mikkel Mathiesen finished tied for 13th at four-under for the tournament after a final round 68 that saw four birdies and an eagle on the par five 11th to counteract a double bogey as the lone blemish on his scorecard. Andrew Flynn tallied seven birdies, including six on the front nine, on the way to a two-over final round 74 as he ended the week four-over in a tie for 55th, while Davis Root finished tied for 70th at six-over for the week after a final round 76 that saw an eagle on the par five second hole.
As a group, the Raiders tallied 20 birdies on Tuesday, with 15 coming on the front nine, while adding four eagles across the collective scorecards.
Wright State is back in action March 9-11 at the Sea Palms Invitational in St. Simons Island, Georgia, a tournament the Raiders head to as the defending champions as three players finished inside the top 15 individually last spring.
