Coming out of an eight-day break from games, Wright State dominated a shorthanded Chicago State squad 81-40 Monday night in the Nutter Center to improve to a program best 9-3 record.
The Raiders have gone the entire nonconference without preseason conference player of the year Kim Demmings, and until Monday, without guard Abby Jump. Jump scored six points in her first game after injuring her back in the offseason.
“She gives us experience,” Wright State head coach Mike Bradbury said. “We need Abby for nothing else because she has played in big games. That lack of experience kills us in games against Purdue, games against Dayton, games against Butler.”
Bradbury did not know for sure if Jump would play until shortly before the game due to the nature of her injury. Bradbury hopes that Jump does not have any further setbacks heading into conference play.
“I am hoping to get eight minutes a game from her,” Bradbury said. “This was the first time she has gone back-to-back days.”
She came into Monday’s game with 12 minutes left in the first half and immediately hit a pair of 3 pointers. Her return eases some of the burden for leading scorer Tay’ler Mingo with Jump’s experience in the backcourt.
“That was fun to watch, it is always good to have another player back who wants to play ball,” Mingo said after scoring a team-high 17 points. “It was good for us because she is a shooter and she can knock down the shots.”
Chicago State (2-10) only traveled seven players in the contest.
The Raiders took four days off following their 70-46 loss at Purdue on Dec. 21. WSU returned to practice last Friday rejuvenated and it showed against Chicago State.
“(Bradbury) ran us pretty hard when we got back to the gym,” Mingo said. “We worked hard in preparation for today.”
Wright State had one of its most dominant defensive efforts Bradbury. The Raiders did so by primarily playing zone defense instead of their usual man-to-man.Using more zone defense allows Wright State to give more playing time to players who struggle in the man defense.
“It gives us a chance to play Richelle (van der Keijl) more, she is not very good when we’re playing man,” Bradbury said. “It gives us a chance to play bigger people. We can play (6-foot center Tayler Stanton) and Richelle together.”
The Raiders have been working more on the zone defense in practice in recent days. While WSU is still learning the zone, it worked well against the Cougars Monday holding CSU to 10 points below its season average.
“We have been wanting to work on it and today, we got a good chance to work on it, Mingo. “I think the hardest part is playing hard in the zone. It is a lot of standing around so when we get into the zone, we get caught standing a lot. That is the hardest part of the zone is playing hard within the zone.”
The Raiders were ahead by double digits early and did not let up. WSU had a 23-7 lead eight minutes into the game powered by a 14-2 run. WSU held a commanding 41-18 lead at halftime.
The second half started off with Stanton scoring six straight points extending WSU’s lead to 29. The Raiders eventually stretched the lead to 43 by going on a 12-0 run midway through the second half.
WSU led by as many as 47 points in the second half.
The Raiders get a day to prepare for their final nonconference home game of the year hosting Central State Wednesday afternoon. Wednesday’s game will feature the return of former Raider Kourtni Perry who transferred last year to Central State.
