Wright State center Tayler Stanton said it was not easy going up against a player four inches taller than her, but she made it look easy pulling in 12 offensive rebounds and scoring 11 points in the Raiders’ 75-68 win Thursday over Murray State.
The 6-foot-0 Stanton went against 6-foot-4 Netanya Jackson. Despite giving up four inches on Jackson, Stanton won the battle inside.
“It wasn’t easy as at all; that girl was a lot bigger than me,” Stanton said. “The one advantage was I could move so that was good but it was not easy at all.”
For Stanton, the key was being in position to get the rebounds.
“I knew if I had her under the basket, that was my whole thing was to get her into a position where she was under the basket and an advantage for me,” Stanton said.
The Raiders improve to 3-0 on the season after winning their home opener. Tay’ler Mingo led the WSU offense with 17 points after getting off to a slow start offensively.
Not having to give her best performance took pressure off Mingo who typically leads WSU in scoring.
“I mean they did what they always do,” Mingo said about Stanton and forward Breanna Stucke who had 14 rebounds. “For (Stanton), it is always about position. She works hard and Stucke, she is consistent. They stepped it up big time. We needed offensive rebounds.”
WSU was just two shy of setting the program record on field goal attempts with the Raiders attempting 94 shots. Taking care of the basketball and rebounding gave WSU an opportunity to win Thursday’s contest as the Raiders shot 28.7 percent from the field.
Murray State shot 44.4 percent but committed 25 turnovers and was outrebounded 60-42 for the contest. WSU had 13 more missed shots than Murray State attempted.
“We needed (offensive rebounding) a lot because we missed a lot; we missed 67 shots,” WSU head coach Mike Bradbury said. “I thought we played extremely well, we just didn’t make the shot. But we executed defensively; we were really good. And then rebounding, we were good.”
Thursday marked Stanton’s second consecutive double-double. Her and Stucke were both in double figures in points and rebounds.
“Tay (Stanton) is a rebounding, defending kid who can score some too,” Bradbury said. “Her energy level was good, as was everyone’s.”
Thursday marked the Raiders’ first home game since losing Horizon League Player of the Year Kim Demmings. Without Demmings, WSU will rely on Mingo to provide much of WSU’s scoring. In the first half, Mingo was limited going 2-for-10 before scoring 13 in the second half.
“She is going to have to be the one to take tough shots down the stretch and make the big play,” Bradbury said about Mingo. “She didn’t shoot it well tonight but those days happen.”
With WSU getting off to a slow start offensively, Murray State took a 28-21 lead. WSU responded by finishing the first half on a 14-2 run allowing just one Murray State field goal in the final eight minutes of the half.
“I think having the momentum going into the half is very important,” Mingo said. “It can change a game whether it is 30 seconds left or two minutes, we stepped it up on defense and that got us a lot of points defensively.”
Wright State’s 35-30 halftime lead nearly evaporated as Murray State cut the lead to 35-34 in the opening minutes of the half. But WSU slowly pulled away from there going on a 9-0 run to keep the lead out of reach for Murray State.
