Photo by Wright State Athletics | The Wright State Guardian | Men’s Basketball vs. Tennessee
Wright State University (WSU) Men’s Basketball returned last week to the Nutter Center to play two home games against the Akron Zips (AKR) and the Tennessee Tech Golden Eagles (TTU) after seven games on the road.
The Raiders fell to the Zips 66-48 but bounced back against the Golden Eagles, winning 72-63 with three WSU players scoring double-digit points.
The Raiders, now 3-7 this season, have focused on improving their defensive play in recent games and are starting to fix their issues. As junior forward Grant Basile said after their loss to Akron, the team still has to improve.
“We’re definitely turning in the right direction, but we’ve still got a ways to go,” Basile said. “Right now, we’re just getting out of a slump. We’ve got to pull together.”
Wide-open on the wing
In the loss against AKR, the Raiders struggled on both ends of the court, only shooting 37% from the floor and giving up some easy shots throughout the game.
The Zips dominated play at the rim, outrebounding WSU 37-26, and limiting WSU’s Tanner Holden, who was leading the team with about 20 points a game at the time, to 12.
“We didn’t physically come ready to play,” Holden said after the game.
But where the Zips found their biggest advantage was the Raiders’ perimeter defense, with AKR hitting nine from the arc with many uncontested shots and WSU only hitting three.
The Raiders would often double-team the player with the ball when it was in the paint, but this would leave a player on the far side of the court wide open and able to take an uncontested shot.
Seven three-point attempts from the Zips in the first 10 minutes versus WSU’s three let AKR’s guards gain confidence and they were able to nail quick shots all night.
“We let guys get going, get comfortable,” Holden said. “It’s really hard to stop guys like that, good shooters.”
Taking down TTU
After losing seven of their last eight games, the Raiders needed a win to turn their season’s momentum around. They were able to find the win over TTU.
WSU looked great on both sides of the ball, especially in the second half, where they shot 52% from the floor and 92% from the free-throw line.
Holden especially had a fantastic night for the Raiders, scoring 22 points while shooting 7-9 from the floor and making 8-8 on free throws.
He had backup from Trey Calvin and Basile, with Calvin scoring 17 and Basile getting himself a double-double with 14 points and 12 rebounds.
Even some of the depth in the Raiders’ lineup started to show, with Keaton Norris and James Manns knocking down baskets from the range with confidence.
The Raiders also dominated on defense, with TTU only shooting 37% from the floor in the second half. WSU limited Clay Jr., TTU’s best shooter, to 2-8 from the floor, and TTU’s second-best shooter, Keishawn Davidson, to 2-10.
For Holden, the change needed for the team to get out of their current form and to play more games like TTU is their confidence.
“If we stay in this slump emotionally, we’ll never get out of it physically,” Holden said. “It’s a confidence thing. Shots will fall, but we’re scaring ourselves out of a lot of shots.”
