The Wright State women found themselves shorthanded and on the wrong end of a 95-73 defeat to the cross-town Dayton Flyers last Wednesday.
The Raiders had to play catch up all night against a fast-paced Flyer attack led by Samantha Mackay, who went 6-9 from three-point range and was one of two UD players to score 20 points.
The Flyers jumped out early to a 12-2 lead and lead by as many as 28 before halftime.
“Dayton is as talented as a team as we’ll play all year and our schedule is tough,” WSU head coach Mike Bradbury said.
After their loss to Ohio State on Nov. 25, Bradbury said rebounding has been WSU’s biggest strength. But UD was able to beat the Raiders at their own game, outrebounding WSU 58-46 and grabbing 22 offensive rebounds in the process.
“We got beat up on the boards,” Bradbury said. “That was the big difference.”
The Raiders shot well in the second half, going 16-33 from the field for 48.5 percent and were able to close the Flyer lead to 10 with 7:56 to play. But that was as close as WSU got as UD responded with a 7-0 run to put the game away.
Kim Demmings fouled out six minutes into the second half and left the Raiders weak at the point guard position. Lack of depth at the spot and UD’s fast-paced offense proved too much for the Raiders, who fell to 2-3 on the season.
“Once we lost Kim, we had no sub on the bench for our guards,” Bradbury said. “We didn’t have anybody left.”
That lack of depth can be attributed to season-ending injuries to Courtney Boyd and Mylan Woods, which have cost the Raiders two projected starters. Woods suffered a season-ending injury for the second year in a row after transferring to WSU from Northwestern.
Ball movement was critical to the Flyer attack, and UD had 21 assists on 33 made baskets. WSU had only eight assists on 25 field goals.
In the losing effort, Ivory James led the green and gold with 22 points in 28 minutes of play. Breanna Stucke chipped in nine points and had an impressive game on the glass with nine rebounds, including five on the offensive end.
With the loss, WSU fell to 4-33 all time against Dayton. Their last win came in December 2006 when the Raiders pulled out a 60-59 victory.
The Raiders play their next home game Wednesday Dec. 12 against Urbana at 7:00 p.m. Before that game, WSU plays a pair of road games at Miami (OH) and against Akron on Dec. 8.
