Jada Roberson | Photo by Stephen Hopkins | The Wright State Guardian
Wright State University (WSU) Women’s Basketball ended their season with a loss against the Oakland Golden Grizzlies (OAK) in the first round of the Horizon League Tournament.
While the Raiders put up a good effort against the Grizzlies, with three players scoring double-digit points, it was not enough to take down OAK, losing the match 45-54.
The team almost disappeared overnight after the disappointing 4-23 season, with seven of its 11 player roster entering the transfer portal within a day.
By the end of the week, seven current players and Shamarre Hale, who sat out for the entire season and was not on the official roster, entered the transfer portal to search for new options.
The final game
The final game of the season for the Raiders looked similar to their games throughout the rest of the season. For the majority of the year, WSU had potential but largely lost to teams off of the glass and off of shooting.
Against OAK, the Raiders lost the rebound battle 48-33 and shot worse from the field and the three than the Grizzlies.
The Raiders had three players score double-digit points to OAK’s two, but the Grizzlies spread the floor far better than WSU, with eight players putting in points to the Raiders’ five.
Jada Roberson was the MVP for WSU in the game, totaling 11 points, nine rebounds and three steals against the Grizzlies for some easy points.
However, it was not enough against OAK’s Lamariyee Williams, who came off of the bench with 16 points and 10 rebounds on 50% shooting.
This game was decided off of the Grizzlies’ dominance in rebounding, and their 24 points from the bench to WSU’s four.
The fallout
With eight players leaving WSU to search for new teams, there is nearly nothing left of the former Head Coach Katrina Merriweather era for the Raiders.
Jada Roberson, Destyne Jackson, KK White and Jada Wright were all players leftover from Merriweather for WSU that scored seven points per game (PPG) or higher this year and entered the transfer portal as soon as the season was over.
The other transfers are Edicia Beck, Zora Fray-Chinn, Constance Chaplin and Shamarre Hale.
Eight players in the transfer portal is second in all of D1 Women’s Basketball nationwide, only behind the 1-27 Morehead State Eagles with 10.
Current Head Coach Kari Hoffman is already in the middle of rebuilding for the team, signing Kacee Baumhower from St. Bonaventure in the winter and Rachel Loobie from Central Michigan just this week.
With an incoming freshman class and a large number of transfers coming in over the off-season, WSU women’s basketball will have rebuilt an almost completely new roster by next season.
