Last week, the Golden Flashes of Kent State traveled to the Nutter Center for the Raiders seventh home game of the season. After a tough game for both teams, Wright State prevailed, winning 63-54.
Each team’s defense came to play, as both teams struggled to shoot from the field. The Raiders were 20-of-52 on their shots and the Golden Flashes went19-of-52. Another issue both teams faced was turnovers. The Golden Flashes committed 24 turnovers while Wright State committed 16.
Despite a low percentage from the field, Wright State had four players score in double-digits. Grant Benzinger led the team with 13 points and went a perfect 5-5 from the free throw line. Parker Ernsthausen and Jaylon Hall contributed 11 points each, while Everett Winchester dropped 10. Winchester was also perfect from the line, going 4-4 on the night.
After the game, Benzinger and Winchester were asked about the team’s balanced scoring throughout the game.
“It’s really hard on them. You can focus on one guy to stop, but then you have four or five other guys that can do what that one guy can do. You have to pick your poison as the other team," Benzinger said.
Winchester added how players have to step up in certain situations. “The coach has stressed having people step up in big time moments. We have a lot of guys that go out on the court every day and play hard," he said.
The team have grown a lot and are now coming into their own, and how they play like they’ve been here before -- despite it being early in their careers, according to Bezinger.
Coach Scott Nagy spoke of how he enjoyed the way the team played, despite not shooting well.
“It’s not very often you go 4-22 from three and win games, but I thought all the things of who we want to be, we did tonight. Obviously, we want to be better offensively, but I’m less concerned about that and more concerned about us staying at the level we were defensively.”
The Raiders look ahead to the University of Toledo this Saturday, December 16. This game will be at Toledo at 2 p.m.
Toledo enters 5-4, while Wright State enters at 6-4.
