Hopkins named Player of the Week
Wright State guard Chrishawn Hopkins was named the Horizon League’s Player of the Week Monday after he led the Raiders to a pair of wins last weekend after becoming the first Raider since Julius Mays in 2011-12 to score over 20 points in back-to-back games.
Hopkins scored 21 in WSU’s 73-70 win last Friday. He followed that effort with a 25-point performance Sunday in the Raiders’ 12-point victory over Ohio Dominican. Hopkins nearly played the entire 40 minutes in Sunday’s game. He took a breather of less than a minute in the middle of the second half.
“I am kind of used to it, I am just getting into the groove,” Hopkins said.
Hopkins’ 25-point effort Sunday marked his career high dating back to his time at Butler.
“Like last year, some of the expectation level on what Chrishawn should do was unfair,” WSU head coach Billy Donlon said. “He hadn’t played in over a year, he joined a team in the middle of December with a veteran group that had everyone back.”
With WSU regularly playing five seniors last season, Donlon was not as patient with Hopkins.
“To be fair, you weren’t going to allow Chrishawn to play five games to play through things,” Donlon said. “That would have been unfair to that team last year. Now, he knows that ‘I am going to be out there.’”
Replacing Griffin’s spot
With WSU guard Kendall Griffin being forced out of the lineup last Friday with a head injury, junior college transfer Joe Thomasson took Griffin’s spot in the starting lineup Sunday.
Thomasson played in 38 minutes in Sunday’s game scoring 15 points and grabbing eight rebounds in just his second Division I contest.
“I don’t look at it as starting, we look at it as stepping up,” Thomasson said. “It is going to take more than one person to pick up (Griffin’s) effort. His energy, just being around us, he picks us up.”
Having 15 rebounds in his last two games is a big improvement for Thomasson over having just one defensive rebound in an exhibition game against Findlay on Nov. 5.
“I played the most minutes and I only had one defensive rebound,” Thomasson said. “Coach chewed me out after the game. He said my performance on hitting the glass was ‘soft.’ He said with the skill set and athleticism I have, one rebound is not good enough.”
C-ya later
WSU starts a six-game road trip today at Bowling Green at 4 p.m. The Raiders hit the road with a 2-0 record and will not be at the Nutter Center again until Dec. 7 versus Urbana.
Having a good start to the season was important for the Raiders given the tough road ahead.
“It is definitely important to always protect our home court,” Hopkins said. “For us to get a good win on Friday and then to turn around and to turn around and get another win, it was good for our team. It gives us confidence and as long as we keep rolling, we will be alright.”
Donlon will get an idea of how tough his squad is over the next six games as WSU travels twice to South Carolina during the road trip.
“Certainly we will find out on the road their ability to have a business-like approach, their ability to stay excited for the game and attention to detail,” Donlon said. “We’re going to learn a lot about ourselves.”
