WSU Rides Three-Point Shooting to Win

Women's Basketball Scoreboard (Feb. 5)
Wright State 93, Youngstown State 81

The Wright State women's basketball team hit a season-high 14 three-pointers and shot 48 percent overall in defeating Youngstown State 93-81 Wednesday afternoon at WSU's Nutter Center, creating a three-way tie atop the Horizon League standings.

The Penguins scored the first five points of the contest, only to see the Raiders answer with seven straight of their own, five of those coming from Ivory James.  Neither team then had more than a three-point edge until a 9-2 run put WSU up 22-14 with 12:42 remaining in the first half.

The margin was seven before Youngstown State tallied 10 consecutive points to regain the lead at 29-26 at the 7:27 mark.  YSU later went up 41-34 until Wright State closed out the period with an 11-5 burst to only trail 46-45 at the break.

WSU shot 44 percent overall in the opening 20 minutes including nine of 18 three-pointers, while the Penguins shot 43 percent and were six of 14 from behind the arc.

A Tayler Stanton layup followed by a Kim Demmings three broke a 50-50 tie and gave Wright State the lead for good, but it was only a four-point game until an 11-2 run, six by James, pushed the margin into double figures at 82-69 with 4:55 to play.  Youngstown State would get no closer than 10 the rest of the way.

With the win, Wright State and Youngstown State each finish the first round of Horizon League play at 6-2, joining Green Bay atop the league standings, with UIC currently a half-game back (6-3) and Cleveland State one-game back (5-3).

WSU shot 48 percent for the game, including a season-high 14 threes on 28 attempts, while YSU shot 42 percent and hit 10 of 29 threes.  Both teams were excellent at the foul line as the Raiders made all 11 attempts compared to 17 of 18 for the Penguins.  Wright State forced 18 turnovers while committing nine, resulting in a 26-16 differential in points off of turnovers.

Demmings led all scorers with 28 points and had seven assists for the Raiders while James added 21 points, Mingo 12 and Stucke a season-high 11 off the bench.

Schlegel posted a double-double of 16 points and 11 rebounds to pace Youngstown State (10-11) while Walker nearly had one as she also had 16 points to go with nine boards.  Newman finished with 15 points off the bench.