The Raiders were able to come away with an 89-87 victory over Miami (OH) Tuesday Nov. 15. The Raiders led by as much as 21 points in the first half and the team seemed to be clicking on all cylinders, but in the second half the RedHawks of Miami came back and scored 55 points in the period.
“Sometimes it’s great to win and it not feel like a win,” said Coach Nagy on his team’s performance.
Mark Alstork was the top scorer in the game as her finished with 29 points and almost got a triple-double in the winning effort. He finished with 10 rebounds and eight assists, leaving him just two assists shy.
Other notable performers in the game were Stephen Davis, Justin Mitchell and Grant Benzinger. Mitchell poured in 14 points and grabbed seven boards as Davis scored 16 with seven boards before fouling out. Benzinger struggled from 3-point land shooting 1-6 but was 4-5 on his other shots as he scored 13 points, but what the stat sheet won’t show is the intangible things the Benzinger did as he took a charge and hustled after loose balls.
“We were bad defensively the first ten minutes of the game. The second ten minutes of the first half was as good of defense as we’ve played this year, and that’s how we built our lead. We’re fortunate that we can learn a lesson and win. That doesn’t happen that often. When the game got tight, even when we lost the lead our kids didn’t panic and they made good plays,” said Nagy.
Wright State’s players contributed their slow second half start to coming out of the halftime lazy. Coach Nagy didn’t disagree with his players on that, but he also thought that the team let their offensive struggles affect their defense.
“It’s always good getting a win, but our defense has got to get better. Overall, though, it’s a good team win,” said Justin Mitchell.
Defense was a key thing to improve on for the Raiders moving forward, but they still come out on top. Now Wright State looks to improve to 3-0 on Saturday Nov. 19 as they host Toledo at 7:00p.m.
