The Wright State women’s basketball team came back from a 15 point deficit at the half to defeat the Xavier Musketeers on the road 66-65.
Sophomore Kim Demmings led all scorers with 29 points while pulling down six rebounds, and helped complete the Raider comeback.
“She (Kim) was tremendous,” Wright State head coach Mike Bradbury said. “She had one of those special nights where she could’ve gone for 40 or 50 points, but foul trouble limited her minutes.”
Also key was freshman Breanna Stucke, who scored 12 points and added five rebounds in 39 minutes played.
“She’s (Breanna) really steady,” Bradbury said. “She really shoots the three-ball well and she stretches the defense, giving our guards a chance to drive the ball.”
It didn’t take long in the second half for the Raiders to begin their comeback, taking the lead at 47-45 with 13:54 to play. From then on, the teams kept the game close before two Tayler Stanton free throws sealed the game for WSU.
Bradbury said his team lacked aggression in the first half, which caused the lopsided halftime score.
“We needed to be more aggressive,” Bradbury said. “We seemed passive in the first half. We needed to drive the ball at the basket.”
Bradbury said the game plan on the defensive end was to force Xavier to shoot the ball and minimize the looks for the Musketeer post players.
“We really packed it in and doubled the post,” Bradbury said. “We wanted to turn them into jump shooters.”
On offense, the Raiders were effective from beyond the arc, making nine of 19 attempts from 3-point land.
“We drove the ball at them inside and they (Xavier) finally started helping,” Bradbury said. “It was a good night for us. We needed every one of them.”
The women’s team improves to 5-4 on the season with the win and will look forward to the Wright State Invitational, where the Raiders play Western Kentucky on Dec. 19 and either St. Francis or Florida A&M on Dec. 21. All games will be played at the Nutter Center.
Students can get free tickets to the games the day of at the Nutter Center with your Wright1 Card. The games will also be streamed live online for free at www.horizonleague.org.
