While the women’s basketball team at Wright State has enjoyed the success of back-to-back 20 win seasons, Head Coach Mike Bradbury wants the program to take the next step.
The past two seasons have been arguably the most successful in WSU women’s basketball history as the Raiders have amassed a combined 41 wins and the only postseason appearances in program history. But Bradbury and his team want more this year.
“Our goals are to compete hard and to win the Horizon League championship,” junior guard Courtney Boyd said.
This year’s team looks to have the pieces to finally take down conference nemesis Green Bay, who has won at least a share of the conference regular season title every year since 1998 and hold a 46-3 all-time record against WSU.
The main piece to the championship puzzle will be sophomore point guard Kim Demmings, who averaged 18.4 points per game last season and was named a second- team freshmen All-American.
“Kim’s our best player,” Bradbury said. “She’s extremely athletic.”
Other pieces include returning starters Boyd and Kayla Lamotte. The Raiders also picked up transfers this offseason, including Mylan Woods from Northwestern, and JUCO transfers Ivory James and Ja’Monica Orton. While there are no seniors on the team, eight of the 14 players on the roster are juniors.
Expect a more up-tempo style of play for the Raiders after last year’s methodical style, which focused on running down the clock and forcing opponents to play defense the entire length of the shot clock.
“It’s going to be different,” Bradbury said. “We’re going to play a lot faster this year and spread the floor more.”
Both Bradbury and Boyd said defense and rebounding are areas of focus in preseason practices. WSU hopes to make up for the losses of last year’s senior class, which included Molly Fox and Shaunda Sandifer, who both averaged more than 10 rebounds per game.
Scoring was not an area of concern last season as WSU averaged 71 points per game and even hit the 100 point mark in a home victory against Cleveland State. The question for this season is who will be a consistent scorer alongside Demmings.
“We are looking for that second scorer,” Bradbury said. “The good news is I think we have three, four, or five girls capable of being that second scorer.”
While the Raiders search for an offensive compliment to Demmings, they’ll have to navigate a challenging schedule which includes non-conference games against Ohio State, Miami, Xavier, Western Kentucky and a home matchup against Dayton.
“It’s a very difficult schedule,” Bradbury said. “It’s a schedule that allows us—if we don’t win the conference tournament—to possibly get an at large bid because we play some very high level teams.”
Both Bradbury and Boyd hope to see more students at games this season as the Raiders aim for new heights.
“We’d love for the students to come see us play,” Bradbury said. “We put out a good product and I think if they saw a game, they’d come back again.”
“Our games are so exciting,” Boyd said. “They (students) won’t be disappointed.”
