www.daytondailynews.com/sports/content/sports/wsu/daily/1228wsubb.htmlWRIGHT STATE 72, NORTHEASTERN 65
Wood leads Raiders past Northeastern
By Marc Katz
Dayton Daily News
FAIRBORN | A few people in the crowd of more than 3,000 at the Nutter Center Tuesday night will remember Northeastern coach Ron Everhart being tossed from the game with his second technical foul with 1:30 to play.
Most, though, will recall the game Wright State guard DaShaun Wood put on the Huskies in a performance that probably the Miami Heat scout in the crowd noticed, too.
Wood scored 23 and dished for nine assists as the Raiders beat the Huskies 72-65 for their third straight victory, lifting them to 4-5. Northeastern is 6-3.
"Wood played well defensively," Everhart said, "and we tried to keep him out of the lane. Obviously, we didn't do a good job of that."
Wood slid through the Northeastern defense to make 8 of 13 shots, most of them inside. He took only one 3-point shot, and made that.
Meanwhile, he also took on — for most of the game — Northeastern's Jose Juan Barea, who was eighth in the country in scoring with 23.1 points a game.
Barea finished with 20, but on 6-of-20 shooting. He made one of nine 3-point baskets.
"All week I was thinking about defending him," Wood said. "I didn't care if I didn't score tonight. My main focus was to play good defense on that kid. He scored 20 points, but he was 6 for 20. Anytime you take 20-30 shots, you got to get something.
"He took a lot of shots. A lot of them were contested, some of them were not. But I think we played him pretty well tonight."
Late in the game, with WSU protecting its lead, Tyrone Scott and Jaron Taylor also guarded Barea.
Forward Drew Burleson aided the WSU effort with 14 points and forward Jordan Pleiman had what WSU coach Paul Biancardi called "a coming out game" with 10 rebounds and 13 points before he fouled out with 3:13 to play.
Wright State increased its six-point halftime lead to 64-51 on a Taylor 3-point shot with 4:46 to play, but Northeastern trimmed that to 65-59 with 2:43 when Everhart wandered too far out of the coaches box.
He had just made a substitution and was trying to tell his player where to go on the floor when referee Steve Skiles noticed him at halfcourt.
Often, a coach will get a warning for this, but Everhart earned a technical with boyhood pal and former Cincinnati coach Bob Huggins looking on.
It didn't help the Raiders, who missed their two free throws, then had a shot blocked. Northeastern continued to trail by only six with 1:30 to play.
Then Barea, on the left baseline, drove to the basket and whistles blared again. In front of the Northeastern bench, referee Mike Sanzere raised his hand, a precursor to a foul. Skiles was on the other side of the baseline and called a travel, which became the call.
Everhart yelled a few things, then turned to address his team. He also slammed his clipboard to the court.
Skiles called a second technical and Everhart was gone, even though he tried to reach Skiles before being led away by assistants near mid-court.
Again WSU missed both technical foul free throws, but worked a play ending with William Graham dunking the ball.
Northeastern scored on each of its three possessions after that, but had to foul the Raiders, too, and they made five of six in the last 37 seconds.
Contact Marc Katz at (937) 225-2157.
