The Wright State men’s basketball team trounced the VMI Keydets 92-59 Saturday night at the Nutter Center in front of an even 3,500 fans.
The Raiders improved to 6-3 on the season by dominating nearly every statistical category, including points in the paint (48-16), points off turnovers (17-6) and rebounds (39-29).
92 points is the most a Raider team has scored since Feb. 27, 2005 when WSU defeated Green Bay 94-80.
The Keydets jumped out to an early lead and led by 10 points at the 12:31 mark. But the Raiders took the lead later on a Reggie Arceneaux layup and never looked back.
Arceneaux led all scorers with 22 points, shooting 70 percent from the field. Miles Dixon, Matt Vest and Kendall Griffin each scored in double-figures.
After the Raiders fell Monday night at Bowling Green, Arceneaux thought the team had something to prove.
“We knew we had something to prove,” Arceneaux said. “Bowling Green was a team we were supposed to beat and we felt like VMI was a team we were supposed to beat.”
The Raiders had their best offensive performance of the season without junior Cole Darling, who scored a career high 29 points against Morehead State in their last home game. Darling’s injury forced him to sit out, but it didn’t stop WSU from shooting 52 percent for the game.
Last Monday at Bowling Green, the Raiders scored only 41 points the entire game. WSU scored 54 points in the second half alone against VMI. Junior Matt Vest believes the team’s inconsistent offense might be starting to correct itself.
“We worked a lot on offense this week,” Vest said. “I think we’ve proven that we can guard people night in and night out. I think if we continue to work on our offense, we’re going to be pretty tough to beat.”
Free throw issues corrected themselves for at least one game as the Raiders went 19-22 from the charity stripe. WSU had shot only 5-6 from the line Monday night at Bowling Green.
Next up for the Raiders is a road trip to New York City when to take on the Hofstra Pride Dec. 15. Tipoff is set for 2:00 p.m. The game can be heard live online at www.myclassiccountry.com.
