The Raiders kicked off Horizon League conference play Wednesday night with a rematch of the 2014 conference championship game. The Raiders fell short to the Green Bay Phoenix 68-59 to begin conference play with a loss.
“We got murdered on the boards,” said coach Mike Bradbury. “We’re top 10 in the country in rebound margin and that was the difference in the game.”
The Raiders do not get out rebounded often as they have a season rebound margin of +8.7. However the Phoenix out rebounded the Raiders by 12 in the game.
WBB: Wright State vs Green Bay
The Phoenix double teamed the Raiders star, Tay’ler Mingo and held her to five points in the first half making two of nine field goals.
“It’s hard work,” said Mingo. “But that’s what we prepare for. I think our staff does a good job getting us prepared and conditioned for the task at hand.”
Breanna Stucke led the Raiders with 11 points at the intermission hitting three of five 3 pointers.
“Mingo drives to the lane and kicks it to me and my job is to hit the open shot,” said Stucke.
The Raiders were up one with 1:58 left in the first half but gave up an eight-point run to the Phoenix. Green Bay led after the first half 32-25, shooting 42.9 percent from the field.
Mingo came out firing in the second half with 19 points for the Raiders finishing with a game-high 24 points.
The Raiders were down just four with 7:27 left to play in the second half but gave up six straight points to the Phoenix, who never looked back.
The Raiders have struggled with Green Bay in the past only winning four times in their program’s history versus them. Bradbury is now 1-10 for his career versus the Phoenix.
“I’m not upset. We competed, we did fine and got beat up on the boards but that’s something I know we’ll correct because that never happens,” Bradbury said. “If we just get it even, we win the game.”
Stucke finished with 19 points for the game hitting key 3 pointers for the Raiders. “They are our biggest opponent in the league. We were ready for them and they were ready for us,” said Stucke. “We know it’s going to be a battle every game. I think we played really hard but fell up short.”
According to Bradbury, WSU guards JJ Williams and Kendyl Hinton were both unavailable tonight due to injuries. The Raiders made up for this by giving Mingo and Stucke more minutes than they have been playing.
The Raiders are now 11-4 on the season and 0-1 in the Horizon League. They will host Detroit in another conference matchup on Saturday. Tip-off is at 2 p.m.
