Arizona men’s basketball to face Wright State in opening round of NCAA Tournament

The Arizona Wildcats now know who they’ll be playing in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

Wright State defeated Bryant 93-82 in the First Four on Wednesday in Dayton, Ohio, advancing the No. 16 seed to a Friday afternoon showdown with the South Region’s top-seeded Wildcats.

Junior guard Tanner Holden scored a game-high 37 points on 11 of 15 shooting to lead WSU to its first ever NCAA Tournament victory. Holden went 14 of 16 from the free-throw line as the Raiders made 26 of 32 overall from the charity stripe. Holden also had 11 rebounds.

WSU junior guard Trey Calvin added 21 points while junior forward Grant Basile contributed 14 points and eight rebounds.

WSU shot 47.5 percent from the field, including nine of 21 from behind the arc. It held Bryant to 42.9 percent shooting. Bryant’s Peter Kiss, the. nation’s leading scorer, scored 28 points to lead the Bulldogs.

The Raiders won the Horizon League tournament last week to punch their ticket to the Big Dance.

WSU’s 93 points was the second most it’s scored all season. The Raiders played up to Bryant’s tempo for most of the game. The two teams turned the ball over a combined 26 times.

The Raiders held a 42-40 lead. With 13:18 remaining, WSU’s lead was only five points. It then went on a 15-4 run to break the game open.

WSU had the advantage of playing miles away from its campus in the suburbs of Dayton. The Raiders will now board a flight to San Diego, where they’ll have less than 24 hours to prepare for Arizona.

Arizona is 1-0 all-time against WSU. The only prior meeting was in November 2004, when the Wildcats won 83-66 behind 24 points from Salim Stoudamire.

The Wildcats and Raiders will tip-off at 4:27 p.m. PT Friday on TruTV.