Fans at the Gentile Center in Chicago paid to see Wright State take on Loyola but instead saw the Reggie Arceneaux Show, coming to a Horizon League arena near you.
Arceneaux scored a career-high 29 points leading the Raiders to a comeback win on the road defeating Loyola 62-61 to improve WSU’s record to 13-4 overall and a perfect 4-0 in Horizon League play. Wright State now sits alone in first place in the conference standings.
“It was an incredible win,” WSU junior AJ Pacher said. “Everyone did something positive for the team to win. We just took it one possession at a time and we just had a whole team that believed.”
Arceneaux was lights out in the second half shooting 4-5 from beyond the arc after halftime and 9-14 from the floor overall for the game. Pacher called Arceneaux a “special player.”
“I was proud of every single person on the team, but I was happy for Reggie,” Pacher said. “I tell Reggie before every game that he is the best point guard in the league now go out and prove it.”
Sophomore Tavares Sledge simply called Arceneaux’s performance “great.”
“It was everything he (Arceneaux) is capable of doing and he actually led our team to a victory,” Sledge said.
Also with a strong performance for WSU was Cole Darling. The junior posted a double-double with 12 points and 11 rebounds. Darling scored all 12 of his points in the second half and had three blocks, one when time was running out to seal the victory for the Raiders.
“Coach (Donlon) just told Cole that he has to drive the ball more and that shots were going to fall,” Pacher said. “Cole had a tremendous block at the end of the game that saved a bucket. He was the Cole I know and love the second half.”
WSU found themselves trailing much of the game and trailed the Ramblers by 10 at halftime. Pacher said the team found motivation in challenging each other in the locker room helping propel the team to victory.
“We kind of got after each other in the locker room and said we need to do better,” Pacher said. “We were missing shots that we normally hit and giving them shots we normally don’t give up.”
After allowing Loyola to shoot 4-7 from three-point land in the first half the Raiders were able to cool off the long range shots as the Ramblers went 2-9 from beyond the arc in the final 20 mintues.
Loyola was able to extend their lead in the second half to 11 points early on before Arceneaux cut the lead to a single point on one of his six three-pointers with 12:12 to play. However the Ramblers would not roll over extending the lead back to seven before the Raiders were able to chip away.
It wasn’t until Arceneaux hit another three with 1:35 to play that the Raiders took the lead again and after two defensive stands and many desperate attempts by the Ramblers to score a last second home win WSU managed to escape with the important road victory.
This victory was the beginning of a four game conference road trip for the Raiders, the longest road trip this season. Pacher believes a key to having a successful road trip will be maintaining focus and avoiding complacency now that WSU is leading the conference standings.
“That was a huge win for us,” Pacher said. “We still have things we got to get better at as a whole. Most importantly we have to stay hungry because every league team we play picked us to finish last.”
Next up for Wright State will be a league contest at preseason conference favorite Valparaiso on Jan. 19. The Crusaders sit at 2-1 in the conference as of the moment and still have to play at Milwaukee and at Detroit before taking on WSU.
