The team picked to finish dead last in the Horizon League this year is off to a good start in conference play.
Wright State won their conference opener 64-53 over Wisconsin Green Bay and improved their overall record to 10-4 while the Phoenix fell to 6-8.
The Raiders were led by sophomores Reggie Arceneaux and Tavares Sledge who paced the WSU attack with 15 and 13 points respectively. Arceneaux also dished out eight assists while Sledge pulled down nine rebounds.
The Raiders also outrebounded a taller Green Bay team 33-30 tonight with help from Sledge’s rebounding effort. Sledge believes that was the key to sixth win in six tries at home for WSU this season.
“We wanted to stop them (Green Bay’s big men) and rebound,” Sledge said. “I thought that was the key to winning the game.”
The lone Achilles’ heel for Wright State was at the free throw line where WSU officially shot 17-27. Both Sledge and Arceneaux said each player on the team shot 500 free throws after practice this past week and the team may find themselves repeating that in the future.
One lone Phoenix, Keifer Sykes, was able to score in double figures tonight as he scored 11 points on just 2-7 shooting from the field. Green Bay’s 7’1” Alec Brown was limited to just five points on 1-7 shooting. As a team Green Bay shot 36.2% from the field.
Green Bay jumped out to a quick 4-0 lead one minute after tipoff but once WSU took the lead on two dunks from Matt Vest followed by a Reggie Arceneaux three-pointer the Raiders never relinquished the lead stretching it to as much as 17 early in the second half.
Wright State’s next opponent will the Wisconsin Milwaukee Panthers this Saturday at 7:00 p.m. Milwaukee lost earlier tonight to conference-foe Detroit 74-59. WSU will be honoring the 30th anniversary of the 1982-1983 national championship team with an 80’s theme night and retro throwback uniforms from the championship season.
Students can receive two free tickets to the game starting at 6:00 p.m. Saturday. The game can also be seen online for free at www.horizonleaguenetwork.com.
