Preseason polls put the Raiders in the conference cellar, but as the calendars near April the only Horizon League team standing is Wright State.
With a 56-51 win over Richmond Monday, the Raiders (23-12) advanced to the semifinals of the CBI where they’ll face Santa Clara (23-11) Wednesday. When WSU hits the court, it will mark the latest the program has played into a season.
“This team has been a joy to coach, and there’s a lot of kids not playing anymore this season,” head coach Billy Donlon said. “Those guys are still playing when a lot of people didn’t believe in them and lot of people didn’t think they could still be playing. Those kids are still playing and they got a lot to hold their heads high about.”
It was a topsy-turvy game which saw 15 ties and 16 lead changes. But momentum veered in the direction of Richmond in the first half, and they took a 26-23 into the break. Donlon thought his team lacked aggression at the start of the game and his halftime words energized them.
“I just think there was an intensity to win,” Donlon said. “Those kids are incredible people now. There’s probably only three games this year where I’ve gone into halftime and chewed them out, and this was one of them. Tonight they responded.”
WSU used a late comeback to overcome the Spiders. Trailing 48-45 with 4:13 left, the Raiders ended the game on an 11-3 run, fueled by the play of juniors Jerran Young (13 points, seven rebounds) and Miles Dixon (14 points). Dixon hit a number of running jumpers and slowed the Richmond attack with gritty defense, while Young punctuated a 9-0 run with a thunderous dunk at the 1:13 mark to put the game away.
“Jerran Young was phenomenal in the second half,” Donlon said. “Where Miles has really improved is defensively. He doesn’t make nearly the mistakes he made. Coaches are teachers. As a teacher, all you want is guys that will respond to teaching and he’s been terrific.”
Young and Dixon accounted for almost half of the Raiders’ points on a night where the offense struggled to produce. The team shot well (20-44) but their 15 turnovers destroyed their rhythm and kept Richmond in the game.
“It was similar to our game two years ago in Chicago,” Donlon said. “Except for the last five minutes, they made us disappear. This time we didn’t disappear and I’m proud of our kids for that.”
Aggressive defense propelled WSU to victory. The Raiders forced the Spiders into bad shots and 16 turnovers. By forcing three-point specialists Darien Brothers and Kendall Anthony off the perimeter, WSU let the other Spiders try to beat them with three-pointers. But Richmond beat themselves with poor shooting at the free throw line (9-16) and from behind the arc 4-18).
Greg Robbins led Richmond with 12 points while WSU held Brothers (seven points) and Anthony (two points) well below their averages.
“We wanted to make who we thought were the right guys to shoot it,” Donlon said. “You’re going to give some shots up the way they spread the floor out. We didn’t want Brothers or Anthony to get threes, or we wanted them to shoot really hard threes.”
With the win, the Raiders tied their 2007 program record for most victories in a season. If they find a way to shut down Santa Clara’s Kevin Foster (18.6) and Marc Trasolini (15.5 ppg), WSU can advance the to the CBI championship.
“I’m just really proud and really grateful that Bob Grant, President Hopkins and Dr. Abramowitz allowed for us to have this happen,” Donlon said. “In practice in the spring, in the summer and fall, I can’t simulate this tournament.”
