After Wright State played one of its worst games in years at Wright State Monday, the Raiders doldrums traveled with them to Youngstown for the first half of Thursday’s contest. In the second half, the Raiders got their identity back.
The Raiders rallied from a double-digit second half deficit to rout Youngstown State 70-61 for their first Horizon League road win of the season after losing by 24 at Green Bay Monday.
The Raiders inside players led the way for WSU. Wright State forward JT Yoho led all scorers with 19 points. Teammate Michael Karena had 14 points. The duo shot a combined 13-of-20 from the field.
Four Raiders were in double figures. Senior guards Chrishawn Hopkins and Reggie Arceneaux were in double figures for the first time in a long while. Hopkins scored 13 points and Arceneaux had 10. Hopkins was held below double figures for 10 straight contests dating back to Nov. 28. Thursday marked Arceneaux’s second double-figure performance since Thanksgiving.
Yoho, Arceneaux and Hopkins played the entire second half. The trio combined to shoot 9-of-11 in the second half rallying the Raiders from oblivion.
“Our older players played liked the veteran players they are capable of in the second half,” Wright State head coach Billy Donlon said.
Things looked bad for Wright State early. After Hopkins made a layup to tie the contest at 12 with 12:41 left in the first, the Penguins went on a 12-0 run to take a 24-12 lead with eight minutes before halftime. The Raiders trailed 34-25 at halftime after being outrebounded 21-14.
Donlon said that despite the Raiders playing three consecutive poor halves dating back to the game Monday, he did not get angry with his team at halftime.
“You have to give them belief and the first thing I said (at halftime) was, ‘Fellas, we just played a really bad half, but Youngstown didn’t do their job,’” Donlon said. “’We should have been down by 25, they left this game be winnable, now you can decide for 20 minutes to win it or not win it.’”
And then he reminded his team that his squad has an identity.
“When we go places, the thing other coaches tell us is, ‘Your team is hard to play against, your kids are tough’” Donlon said. “That is our identity and I told them, ‘I don’t know what happened against Detroit to the time we got to Wisconsin to now but we haven’t played like that tough team, but that is all I want to see.’”
And Donlon saw that toughness in the second half.
The Raiders responded by holding the Penguins without a field goal for over nine minutes and used that to propel to a 24-5 run to go up 10 with 7:21 left. Wright State made much of its comeback while key players faced foul trouble. Starters Joe Thomasson and Karena along with key reserve Kendall Griffin all sat at times with four fouls in the second half.
Wright State shot 72 percent in the second half and outrebounded Youngstown State 17-9 in the half. The Penguins shot just 26 percent from the field in the second.
“Our advantage against them was depth,” Donlon said. “If we could get the score even or go up a couple, I thought fatigue might become a factor. I don’t coach their team but I thought depth bothered them some.”
After starting Horizon League play 2-1, the Raiders return home Wednesday to host Cleveland State. The Vikings are off to a 3-0 start to Horizon League play.
