ROSEMONT, Ill. – After missing the last 10 games of last season due to a shoulder injury in addition to this year’s season opener due to an ankle injury, WSU forward Cole Darling was ready to play a full contest.
After only playing for a minute in Wednesday’s 88-70 loss at Georgetown, Darling was held to 12 minutes of action in the Raiders’ 81-72 loss at DePaul.
Darling was held to 12 minutes because he fouled out of the game. Darling scored nine points in limited action.
“I just have to make the changes I need to to not foul and stay in the game,” Darling said. “It is coming back, I am practicing every day and I am trying to go harder and harder.”
Despite the limited minutes, Wright State head coach Billy Donlon liked that Darling looked healthy. 
“He is going to be fine, Cole looks healthy,” Donlon said. “He hasn’t played a real game since February a year ago. Obviously, he is a real good player. He gets in the game late in the second half, gets two 3-point plays.”
Darling was on the bench early as he had two first-half fouls as he had a pair of buckets and a free throw. Donlon would have liked to have seen more of Darling late in Saturday’s contest.
Darling and forward A.J. Pacher fouled out of Saturday’s game. Pacher had 11 points in just 12 minutes of action.
“[Fouls] impacted us the whole game,” Donlon said. “It is not just about the last five minutes. When you have a kid who gets 11 points in 12 minutes and can’t play him, it is impactful.”
A total of 28 personals were called throughout the game.
“We have to adjust better the way they’re calling games this year,” Darling said. “It is a lot tighter. We have to adjust especially in a game like this at the end.”
The Raiders came minutes away from pulling off their first win over a Big East squad in five years. The game, at times, got sloppy as the teams combined for 38 turnovers.
But WSU went on a long scoring drought late in the second half which allowed DePaul to come back and take the lead.
“They made some timely shots,” Donlon said. “Billy Garrett’s 3 was late in the shot clock, those possessions are critical. If you get them to miss and come down and score again, that is the momentum of the game.”
Aside from all of the foul trouble, things looked good early for the Raiders. WSU took an 8-0 lead in the opening two minutes of the game. Despite the Blue Demons taking the momentum away from WSU with an 8-0 run of their own, WSU held its own in the first half.
The Raiders held a 35-33 halftime lead thanks to forcing 15 turnovers from DePaul.
“That is a pretty good team and we forced them into 15 turnovers in the first half, we felt really good about ourselves,” WSU point guard Reggie Arceneaux said.
The Raiders extended their halftime lead to nine with a 9-2 run to start the second half. The Raiders held the lead for most of the second half.
J.T. Yoho had three of his game leading 13 points on a 3-pointer with eight minutes remaining to give WSU a 68-61 lead. DePaul closed out the remaining part of the game on a 21-4 run including a 10-0 run after Yoho’s bucket.
“We didn’t play with the same urgency as we came out with in the beginning of the game and the first half,” Arceneaux said. “They beat us on almost every loose ball and their intensity picked up and ours slacked off.”
The Raiders return to the Nutter Center Monday to continue the CBE Classic versus Manchester.
