With the game tied at 33, Wright State used an 11-0 run to power itself to a 70-50 win over Southern Illinois Saturday afternoon in McLin Gym.
WSU’s defense held strong as Southern Illinois made just 32.8 percent of its field goals. The Raiders were able to maintain their defensive prowess while only surrendering nine personal fouls.
The officials call Wright State leading scorer Tay’ler Mingo said that it is tough to stay out of foul trouble with the way college basketball.
“It is hard with all of the new rules,” said Mingo who scored 24 points Saturday. “You used to get one touch, now you can’t touch anybody. You have to be really disciplined.”
Wright State head coach Mike Bradbury said he was pleased with the effort his squad showed on both ends of the floor.
“That is as good as we have been,” Bradbury said. “We have spent a lot of time on how to be a good defensive team. That is the way we’re going to have to play, that is the way we’re going to have to win. We’re not very efficient offensively but that is going to get better.”
While WSU only shot 18.8 percent from beyond the arc and 41.4 percent overall, Bradbury saw improvement from Thursday’s contest when the Raiders had over 60 missed shots.
“We shot a higher percentage but I am not sure what that means, I don’t think we could have shot a lower one,” Bradbury said. “I guess we improved but we’re a work in progress."
Staying out of foul trouble was a huge key for the Raiders in Saturday’s win. The Salukis only went to the line four times and no one from WSU had more than two fouls.
“We write it on the board everyday,” Bradbury said, “’Guard the ball without fouling. Pressure the ball without fouling.’ We work on it. Game to game it is different, but today, we were good guarding the ball and not fouling. We played really, really disciplined.”
The Raiders are 4-0 for the first time as a Division I team. With the adversity the squad has faced early in the year with losing the preseason conference player of the year, Bradbury said he is happy with the play of his team.
After WSU took a 33-29 lead into the second half, the Salukis scored the first four points of the half to tie the game at 33. After the 33-33 tie, WSU went on an 11-0 run with Mingo scoring seven of the Raiders’ points during the run.
“We came out sluggish and if you want to win a basketball game, you can’t do that,” Mingo said. “We pulled it together and we just happened to hit some shots, make some layups. We were just vybing and we took off.”
The WSU run was enough to put the contest out of reach. The Raiders outscored the Salukis 37-17 in the final 18 minutes of the contest.
Wright State had to adjust to playing in a different home arena. The main floor at the Nutter Center was unavailable due to a robot convention. With playing in a smaller gym, the shooting background was more like what the Raiders see in practice.
“But the atmosphere was the same only because we had the same people supporting us every time we play,” Mingo said.
The Raiders next play Boston College from the ACC in a tournament hosted by Maine. Bradbury said Friday’s contest will be a good litmus test for his squad.
