DETROIT — The 2018 Horizon League Men’s Basketball Championship is in the books with Wright State taking the crown and the automatic NCAA Tourney selection. Besides the championship excitement, there was great hospitality extended by the staff of the fabulous Little Caesars Arena and the Horizon League administrators. This greatly added to the spectator experience.
Wright State which is near Dayton, Ohio played relentless defense and had great bench play bested Cleveland State, 74-57. The tournament was held at the new Little Caesars Arena which opened recently.
In front of an announced attendance of 7,595, Wright State (25-9) was led by senior Grant Benzinger’s 19 points and nine rebounds. He was selected as the tournament’s MVP. “This whole team is a bunch of workhorses,” Benzinger said post-game.
Second year head coach Scott Nagy said, “I’ve coached a lot of guys over many, many years, but Grant might be the only one I’ve had to ask to quit diving on the floor. But it just shows you how badly he wanted this thing.”
Wright State outscored the Vikings in the paint 34-22 and 17-8 off the bench. In another important stat Wright State won the battle of the boards 40-30. Both teams excelled at their foul shots as CSU was 7-7 and WSU was 9-11. Senior Kenny Carpenter (Detroit Cass Tech) had 18 points for CSU.
In the women’s final, top-seeded University of Wisconsin-Green Bay took a 62-44 dominant victory over Wright State. Green Bay (29-3) claimed its fourth consecutive Horizon League Championship. Senior Allie LeClaire was named the Tournament MVP, pouring in a game-high 24 points against WSU.
