DETROIT – After scoring four straight double-figure games in the non-conference, Wright State freshman guard Grant Benzinger came into Monday’s game at Detroit looking for his first double-figure performance in the Horizon League.
He delivered one of his best performances of the season Monday matching his career high with five 3-pointers leading WSU to a 64-53 win breaking the Raiders’ three-game skid.
Benzinger was a catalyst for a WSU offense that had been sputtering in recent games.
WSU started conference play with the second-worst field goal percentage in the league, averaging 40.7 percent. On Monday, WSU shot 45.5 percent from the field with Benzinger leading the charge from beyond the arc. He shot 5-from-9 on 3-pointers and matching his career high with 18 points.
“We had a young player step up and make some big shots,” Wright State head coach Billy Donlon said about Benzinger.
During WSU’s recent losing streak, Benzinger shot just 1-for-7. Breaking out of a funk felt good for the freshman from Cincinnati.
“The games before we got open looks against Milwaukee, Valpo and Cleveland State,” Benzinger said. “We just had to stick with it. It’s a process. They’ll go down one game, and luckily it was this one."
After starting off Monday’s contest making his first three 3-pointers, Benzinger found the second half was tougher to find open looks.
“In the second half, they really contested everything,” Benzinger said. “I even air-balled one, which was really unusual. I didn’t like it. They did a good job on me in the second half, and that freed up Kendall (Griffin) and he hit a lot of big shots.”
Benzinger was not the only player who had a career-night Monday. Griffin scored 20 points surpassing his previous career high of 15.
“We were scoring inside and out,” Griffin said. “That’s pretty tough to defend. Once they went to that zone, we had a little bit of trouble. But for the most part we played pretty well."
M*A*S*H*
Wright State forward Steven Davis missed his seventh straight contest Monday as he has battled a severe bone bruise. Davis injured his foot late in a contest versus Ohio State on Dec. 27.
Leading up to the injury, he was starting to play well as he had 13 points in his final full game before the injury. His status is day-to-day.
JT Yoho has remained out of the Raider lineup indefinitely and he is still weeks away from returning. Yoho was averaging a team-high 16.1 points a game
Mitchell gets the start
Wright State freshman Justin Mitchell made his fourth start of the season Monday at Detroit after coming off the bench the last four games. Mitchell’s presence was limited as he only played 11 minutes and scored two points. Senior guard Reggie Arceneaux came off the bench and played 27 minutes.
“If you start Reggie instead of Justin, you are subbing really, really young players,” Donlon said. “So if you don’t get off to a good start like Milwaukee where we guarded great for the first six minutes of the game and then we subbed and it all went (downhill).”
Five (small) guys
Unlike most conference road trips, Wright State gets to stay in its same team hotel as the Raiders will go cross-town from Detroit to take on Oakland tonight. Oakland will pose a different challenge than Detroit, as the Golden Grizzlies have more size inside.
The Raiders are lacking depth on the wings with Davis’ and Yoho’s injuries. At times during Monday’s contest, WSU was forced to use five guards for extended stretches as center Michael Karena got into foul trouble.
“Oakland starts one of the biggest lineups in our league, especially two through five when you take (Kahlil) Felder out and Felder is phenomenal,” Donlon said. “It will be a different type of game. And we’ll have to have a different kind of plan in order to be successful Wednesday.”
