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Women’s Basketball Dominates Home Opener

Women's Basketball

Women’s Basketball | Photo by Wright State Athletics


Wright State University women’s basketball dominated the Ohio Christian Trailblazers in its home opener with nearly 3,000 fans in attendance for the annual education game.

Coaching standpoint

The 98-37 final score gave second-year head coach Kari Hoffman a chance to play 12 players on the roster with success on defense and offense across the board.

With five players in double digit scoring, and the maximum number of minutes someone played being 25, this game was a chance for the entire roster to show what it can do on the court.

“I think we are pretty deep, I really do,” Hoffman said. “We’re on the verge of finding out what a couple of players who are returning from injury can do, and so I’m happy to give them some minutes, and I was happy that there was a lot of success across the board.”

Rebuilding

After WSU struggled last year with a 4-19 record in Hoffman’s first season, the team needs a chance to rebuild and develop. The Raiders had a 0-2 record to start the 2022-2023 campaign after losses to Bowling Green and Toledo.

But, the Raiders did not break from the losses and focused on getting better throughout the week to win on Thursday.

“We started out pretty slow in our last two games, and that’s been frustrating,” Hoffman said. “But, we didn’t want to focus on that, we wanted to be our best selves.”

To continue forward, the Raiders have a tough non-conference schedule with a lot of away games. Hoffman committed the team to a difficult schedule, but this choice will improve the Raiders in the long run.

“Obviously, I’ve set us up for a really tough one this year, but hopefully it’ll make us stronger,” Hoffman said. “We’ll be back here in two weeks and hopefully not feel like strangers here.”

With away games at Ohio State and Tennessee highlighting the schedule, hopefully tough opposition can pay off in the team’s first conference matchup in early December.

Education Day

The first home game of the season was a special one for WSU, as education game day brought kids from around the Dayton area to watch the basketball game.

The game is often the highest-attendance game of the year for the Raiders, and this one might be as well, with around 2,900 fans in attendance for Thursday’s action.

The energy of the fans and students in attendance were big for Hoffman and the Raiders, pushing the team to nearly 100 points on offense. 

“I love education game day,” Hoffman said. “Those guys were awesome today, just you know, waving their little glow sticks and just bringing the energy. They really wanted us to get to 100, but I’m glad our players didn’t push that much.”

The 98-37 win was a stepping stone for a program that needed a win and to see what it is working with, all leading up to a non-conference matchup against Ohio State and later the team’s first conference game. 

The next Raider home game is against Robert Morris on Dec. 2 at 6 p.m. 


Noah Kindig

Sports Reporter

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