Wright State forward Cole Darling said that his head coach, Billy Donlon, ran him and his teammates hard the last two days in practice on the defensive end of the court after a 74-70 loss last Saturday at South Alabama.
That effort showed on Wednesday evening.
The Raiders gave a much better defensive performance than their previous game in a 73-55 victory over Alcorn State. Darling had a team-high 18 points.
“We definitely stepped it up, we had two pretty tough days going into this game just working on defense,” Darling said. “So far, we kind of have gotten away from that this year. We haven’t guarded the way that Wright State teams in the past have and I think we today we took a step in the right direction.”
The 55 points the Raiders allowed was the fewest WSU has given up versus a Division I opponent this season.
“He was getting into it,” Raiders guard Miles Dixon said. “(Donlon) wasn’t satisfied from our loss at South Alabama. He believed we could have won that game. It is just hard for us, he just wanted us to get back to playing Wright State D and we did that tonight.”
Donlon agreed with his players’ assessment of the Raiders’ defensive performance against the Braves.
“I was happy with the way we defended for the majority of the game,” Donlon said.
WSU held a 30-21 lead late in the first half. Anthony Evans cut the Raiders’ lead to 30-24 following a 65-foot basket at the end of the half. Nine different Raiders scored in the first half.
“When they had 21 points and they needed a 3-quarter court shot to get to 24, you really guarded,” Donlon said. “And credit our guys, when you make a shot like that and now it is a six-point game, the whole mindset of the other team changes.”
The Raiders started the second half on an 11-0 run to take a 41-24 lead five minutes into the second half.
The Raiders extended the lead to 22 midway through the second half. Alcorn State cut WSU’s lead to 13 with five minutes remaining. The Raiders staved off the Braves’ rally with an 8-1 run late in the second half.
Wednesday marked Darling’s best scoring effort of the season. Darling went 5-for-8 from the field and 7-for-7 from the free-throw line.
Darling has had his minutes limited early in the season with a shoulder injury. Wednesday’s win was the second time Darling had more than 20 minutes in a contest.
“I think he is getting back to where he can be,” Donlon said.
WSU shot 51 percent from the field in Wednesday’s game. The Raiders took the ball to the lane scoring 30 from the paint and drawing fouls. The Raiders went 16-of-21 from the line.
“We stuck to our offensive plan,” Dixon said. “We tried to play inside-out. We tried to feed the ball inside to AJ (Pacher) who leads the nation in field goal percentage. I thought we shot the ball well tonight.”
The Raiders will have a light practice on Thanksgiving preparing for Saturday’s contest versus Western Carolina before spending the evening at Pacher’s house in Vandalia.
“I will be there for a little while but they’re tired of me,” Donlon said.
