After winning their last three of four, Wright State could earn either the 6, 7, or 8 seed in the Horizon League tournament depending on the results of this and other contests, guaranteeing at minimum a home playoff game in the first round. The men’s team locked in the 8 seed on Thursday, taking down Cleveland State at home in an exhilarating come-from-behind victory to defend the Nutter Center, meaning Wright State will host a first-round double-header for the first time since 2016.
The Wright State women’s basketball squad were looking to finish their regular season at home against Robert Morris on a high note. The Colonials took the road matchup in January by a convincing 21-point margin and have been hanging around in the fourth spot in the conference.
As part of the Senior Day festivities, Amaya Staton was honored as the lone senior on the squad. Staton is the Horizon’s rebounding and blocking leader, as well as top 25 in the nation in double-doubles, started her career at Cleveland State before moving on after her freshman year to Merrimack (despite what this author mistakenly said in the preview article at the beginning of the year, I blame some dyslexia on my part). At Merrimack, she built her resume and starts, culminating in a 10.9 PPG average in her senior year to go along with four double-doubles. At Wright State, Staton has been indispensable under the rim, earning double-doubles more often than not with 14 (!!!) of them so far and averaging 11.5 PPG.
Wright State jumped to an early lead, but Robert Morris cut into the match quickly by forcing turnovers and looming over the undersized Raider offense. Danielle Vuletich of the Colonials put up some key blocks to stifle the Raiders’ drives and the Colonials took advantage of the lull in scoring to go up 19-11 at the end of the 1st.
The second quarter fared no better for the Raiders as attempts to stifle the Colonial offense were met with whistles, leading to a 12-3 run and a Wright State timeout. Following a long delay for the referees to check on foul numbers, the second quarter saw the Raiders begin to push back into the fray, getting within 12 PTs of the lead before tapering off and allowing the Colonials to push the lead into the twenties. The half ended 44-24 in the Colonials favor, with Robert Morris shooting 61% from the floor to Wright State’s 31%.
Despite Robert Morris granting the bonus to Wright State early in the third quarter, the period went by without much scoring. Wright State turned on the pressure in the fourth quarter in hopes to turn the game around and was able to cut into the score. Using the pressure to create forced turnovers and offensive rebounds brought by Amaya Staton underneath, the Raiders were able to slip closer to the Colonials, but could not dip into the double digit deficit the Raiders had dug.
“They’re very astute defensively, they’re a great team and they played like it,” Hoffman commented.
Wright State ended its final home game with a 73-57 loss, securing the 8 seed in the tournament. Amaya Staton notched another double-double early in the fourth quarter to make her eighth consecutive, putting together 13 PTs and 13 RBs.
“She’s as effiecient as she always is… she’s cleaning up the glass and keeping possessions alive for us,” Hoffman remarked cheerfully about Staton. “I wish we could’ve pulled this one out for her on Senior Night.”
Macie Taylor brought in an additional 14 points as the only member of the team to get more than one attempt behind the arc to fall, and Chloe Chard-Peloquin brought 10 points as well. Noa Givon, Danielle Vuletich, and Mya Murray for the Colonials all brought in double digits, with Mya Murray putting together a perfect 4-4 FGs and 2-2 FTs in 12 minutes of play. While turnovers for the two squads were even, Robert Morris was able to convert the opportunities into points far more often than the Raiders.
With the regular season now past, the Raiders look to the postseason where they will face #9 Youngstown State at 5:30 on March 4th. While the Raiders have taken the win in both of the games against the Penguins, it took some extra minutes the last go-around to put the Penguins down. Time for the March Madness to begin in the Horizon.
“I hope we go back to our mid-February selves, I expect a really good battle,” Hoffman replied about the matches ahead.
