Wright State hosted Cleveland State at the Nutter Center on Saturday and got another conference win to give them four on the season and an overall record of 15-5. The Raiders received career highs, 19 points from Richelle van der Keijl and 10 assists from Tay’ler Mingo in their 82-65 win.
In the first half, the Raiders got off to a slow start falling behind by 12 points but closed out the half on a 31-8 run to go up 39-28.
After losing both contests against Cleveland State last season, Wright State head coach Mike Bradbury tried a different defensive strategy.
“It was bad coaching while we were down 20-8 because we were playing man and then we went zone,” Bradbury said. “It was in the game plan because we can’t guard them. We know we can’t guard them so we stopped trying to.”
The Raiders made an effort to get the ball inside which assisted them with 18 points in the paint for the half.
In the second half, the Raiders stuck with the zone defense that was essential to their success in the first half. Cleveland State brought the game within one point with 12:48 left but WSU responded with a 25-7 run a few minutes later and never looked back.
The Raiders had six turnovers in the game, with just one in the second half. WSU lost the rebound battle by two but managed to get 19 turnovers with 28 points off of them compared to only two points off of turnovers for Cleveland State.
“We led the country in turnover margin last year,” Bradbury said. “That’s 351 teams. That’s the first time any sport ever in the history of Wright State has accomplished that.”
Going into the game, van der Keijl averaged just over seven minutes and three points per game on the season. She had 20 minutes Saturday nearly reaching a double-double with 19 points and eight rebounds.
Last week’s Horizon League Player of the Week Mingo led the Raiders with 31 points, six steals and 10 assists for her second career double-double.
She said, “My teammates were really good today. I got them the ball and they finished.”
Mingo has now scored over 30 points in three straight games and has an average of 27.6 points per game in conference play.
“I try to get to the free throw line as much as possible,” Mingo said. “I just take advantage of what people give me. I play hard.”
The Raiders will travel to Oakland on Thursday in a conference game against the Golden Grizzlies (9-9) who are coming off a victory against Youngstown State.
