FAIRBORN — Parker Ernsthausen scored a career-high 24 points off the bench and the Wright State men’s basketball hit 11 threes and 25 of 30 foul shots in defeating Oakland 88-67 Sunday afternoon in Horizon League action at the Wright State Nutter Center.
An 11-0 run erased an early two-point deficit and gave the Raiders the lead for good at 16-7. WSU then extended the margin to 29-17 with a 10-1 burst, six coming from Mark Alstork, and the lead remained in double figures the remainder of the half, with Wright State going into the break up 42-30.
The Raiders shot 40 percent from the field in the opening 20 minutes and hit 14 of 17 foul shots while the Golden Grizzlies shot 39 percent overall, but just two of 11 from three and six of 10 at the foul line.
Oakland closed the gap to 45-39 with 16:45 remaining before Wright State broke the game open with a 34-12 run over the next 11 minutes, 10 by Ernsthausen and nine from Steven Davis.
WSU hit 14 of 27 shots in the second half, including seven of 14 three-pointers, to finish at 46 percent overall and 11 of 25 from behind the arc. The Raiders also made 11 of 13 free throws after halftime in going 25 of 30 from the line for the contest.
The Golden Grizzlies shot 40 percent overall, but were only five of 20 from three-point range and made 16 of 22 foul shots.
Ernsthausen connected on eight of 10 shots from the field and eight of nine free throws in finishing with a career-high 24 points. His previous career best was 10, set earlier this season against Ohio Dominican and Youngstown State.
Alstork also had 24 points, six rebounds and six assists while Davis had 17 points and Justin Mitchell chipped in 15 rebounds and six assists.
Wright State (14-7, 5-3 Horizon) hits the road for a pair of games next week, traveling to Valparaiso on Friday, January 27, for an 8:00 Eastern game followed by UIC on Sunday, January 29, for a contest that will start at 4:00 Dayton time.
