Wright State will make its NCAA Tournament debut on Saturday morning as the 14th-seeded Raiders face third-seeded Kentucky at the Wildcats' Memorial Coliseum at 11 a.m.
The game will be telecast on ESPN2 or you can watch online here.
The Raiders spent part of Friday getting acclimated to Memorial Coliseum as WSU spent 90 minutes practicing on the gamefloor after beginning the day by visiting with the media.
Saturday's first round game promises to be a high-scoring affair as both teams rank among the nation's leaders in points per game. The Raiders finished the regular season fourth in the nation in scoring offense (84.0), while Kentucky paced the SEC and ranked 14th in the country (81.4).
While both teams like to get up-and-down the court, the Wildcats will have the advantage in the paint as Kentucky has four players 6'0" or taller in their rotation, while Wright State normally plays a four-guard lineup.
"They’re going to play who they play," Wright State Head Coach Mike Bradbury said. "I don’t know that we can force them to play small. They’re as athletic so there’s not a huge advantage there in athleticism. They’re going to play to their strength and we’ll try to play to ours. I don’t think we can change them.
"You’ve just got to compete. I mean, we’re not going to get any bigger and they’re not going to get any smaller, so we just have to compete. We have to get five people competing for defensive rebounds and do the best we can. There’s nothing magic about it. We’ve just got to get in there and compete and do the best we can and make it as hard as possible.”
Horizon League Player of the Year Kim Demmings is undaunted by the challenge that the taller Wildcats pose, echoing her coach that a key to the Raiders success will be hitting the boards.
"We are going to have to compete a lot on rebounding," Demmings said. "They have a couple of bigger post players but that shouldn’t hurt us too bad because we are competitive and we will compete for rebounds. If we do that, we should be fine.
"We are expecting a high-intensity game, a real competitive game. We are expecting to get out and run. We are going to go out and play our game and see what happens.”
MISSING KC
The Raiders will be without KC Elkins on Saturday after the senior guard was injured late in WSU's win over Green Bay in the HL Championship Game on Sunday.
Elkins started 30 games this season and averaged 8.1 points per game. She set a program-record and tied a Horizon League record with 10 three-pointers in the Raiders win over Valparaiso on March 8. For the season, she ranked third on the team with 54 three-point field goals made.
"KC was very important,' senior guard Ivory James said. "Being a teammate and a friend, (we) will go out and play hard for her. I know she really wanted to be here. I’m pretty sure we’ll all do what we go to do to get this win for her.”
“Honestly, you don’t miss a player until they’re gone," junior guard Tay'ler Mingo said. "With KC being gone it makes a huge difference. She gets us matched up and she communicates very well. She knows the system like the back of her hand.”
NOTE THE OFFENSE
The Raiders enter Saturday's contest winners of nine of their last 10 ballgames. During that streak, the Raiders have scored 85 or more points eight times and have averaged 90.8 points over the course of the 10 games.
Tags: Wright State - Women's Basketball
