Fairborn, OH – It’s not very often that the team that makes more shots from the floor is on the wrong side of the final score, but that’s exactly what happened to the Purdue Fort Wayne Mastodons (15-9, 9-4 Horizon League) in their 67-70 loss to Wright State (7-17, 3-10 Horizon League) on Thursday night. On a night where she was recognized for 1,000 career points as a Raider, Breezie Williams would have a career night en route to snapping the Mastodons’ four-game win streak while also breaking the seven-game losing skid for the Raiders.
The game started off with both teams shooting it well. Rylee Bess scored the first points of the game with a rare interior shot — a 13-foot floater. Wright State’s Claire Henson responded with a layup, and the Raiders would never trail again. Williams got her first two points on the next possession with the analytically worst shot in the game with a deep two-pointer, but two points are two points. Jordan Reid tied the game up with a blowby layup, and then the teams traded deep balls with Lauren Scott hitting for the Raiders and the Horizon League’s top scorer, Alana Nelson, scoring for the ‘Dons.
The teams played relatively clean basketball for the first half of the quarter. The Mastodons would not turn the ball over before the media timeout, and the Raiders only coughed it up twice. The first stoppage of the game came with the first foul of the game, which didn’t happen until 4:20 remaining in the first quarter with a foul on Wright State’s Grace Okih.
As the final seconds of the first quarter ticked away, it looked like Wright State was holding for the final shot with the shot clock and game clocked separated by 0.3 seconds. Williams attempted to make a pass to her teammate on the wing only for Reid to pick the ball off once again and go coast to coast for the easy layup, cutting the deficit back down to four. The Raiders took a 19-15 lead into the quarter break.
The first half went from bad to worse for the ‘Dons. The second quarter started off fine with another layup from Reid, but then turned painfully slow for the Horizon League’s top scoring offense. The ‘Dons would go silent for the next five and a half minutes, missing their next seven shots and turning the ball over twice. Reid ended the scoring drought with yet another coast to coast steal and score to become the first Mastodon in double digits.
During this time, the Raiders didn’t do too much damage, but Williams did score the Raiders’ five points in that time. Williams would then score another eight points in the final 90 seconds of the half. To mitigate some damage, Nelson added six points with back-to-back three-pointers to end the half. Purdue Fort Wayne had the momentum going into the break, but Wright State held a nine point lead, 34-25.
The first half was a statistical nightmare for the Mastodons. The made threes by Nelson at the end of the half helped the average, bringing the overall shooting performance up to 11-for-29 (38%) and 3-for-11 (27%) from beyond the arc. Nelson was the only Mastodon to hit from three in the first half. Nelson was also the only Mastodon to attempt a free throw in the half, but she missed both of her attempts. Wright State had one of their best offensive halves of the year. As a team, the Raiders shot 14-for-25 from the floor and also hit three triples on seven attempts (43%). Most alarming for Purdue Fort Wayne, though the listed heights give the ‘Dons an advantage — Wright State would double up the ‘Dons on the boards 20-10. Neither team recorded a single bench point in the first half, though each team went 11 deep in the first 20 minutes.
Reid picked up her third personal foul early in the third quarter on an Okih attempt down low. The ‘Dons and Nelson responded on the other end with an and-one for Nelson’s first made basket inside 22 feet. Following the conversion, the Raiders would cough up the ball for the thirteenth time. Wright State came into the game averaging 13 turnovers per game. After 19 first half points, it would take over four minutes for Williams to score in the second half, but she nailed a high arcing three-pointer from the left wing to bring the Raider lead back up to 12 and force a Mastodon timeout. Hillary Offing scored in the paint in back-to-back possessions to get the deficit back down to single digits, but a three-pointer from Rylee Sagester and some English off the eurostep layup from Henson would balloon the Wright State lead back up to 13.
In the final three minutes of the third quarter, the Mastodons tried to make it a game. The ‘Dons used a 9-0 run on a Reid 12-footer, a Nelson right corner three and layup, and a Nika Lokica layup to draw the closest they’d been since the first quarter. WSU held for the final shot, but Henson was unable to convert. It was a Wright State 48-44 lead heading into the final quarter, but the Mastodons had all the momentum.
Wright State would come out of the break looking to stop the bleeding. Lauren Scott picked up her second assist of the night finding Okih in the middle of the lane for a basket, breaking the Mastodon run and Raider scoring drought. Purdue Fort Wayne answered with a long two by Reid and a good post move inside by Lili Krasovec to bring it with two. Wright State did not allow the game to get any closer, separating themselves again with a three by Scott and a three by Sagester on back to back possessions to go back ahead by eight. Krasovec would do her best to keep the Mastodons within striking range, scoring six more points in a span of two minutes.
A smooth three-pointer by Williams over a Reid high hand gave the Raiders a 63-58 lead with 1:12 remaining in the game. Then Williams hit the dagger on a step back three-pointer with the shot clock expiring to put Wright State ahead by eight. The Mastodons quickly got a three-pointer from Nelson and then forced a turnover on Oliva Brown where Reid would score at the basket in transition to bring it back within three. Now in a fouling scenario, the ‘Dons sent Brown to the line, where she hit both free throws. The Mastodons responded with a layup from Lauren Lee, but it probably took more time than they had hoped. Lee had to foul Brown again, and Brown would convert yet again on the other end at the line. Lee then found a lane again for a layup and then once again fouled Brown.
Nelson had a chance to play hero at the very end of the game. Brown missed both free throws after being fouled with four seconds left in the game to give a sliver of hope to the Mastodons, only down three. Nelson took the rebound the distance of the floor until the top of the key. She looked to pass to a teammate instead of taking the shot, and who else but Williams deflected the pass to seal the 67-70 victory for the Raiders.
Williams was “Ms. Do It All” tonight as she led the Raiders in minutes (39), points (28), and assists (5). She tied Henson for the team lead in rebounds with eight. As a team, the Raiders outrebounded the Mastodons 37-26 despite the height disadvantage and the fouling out of Okih. Even with 70 points, the Raider offense was far from perfect. Wright State turned the ball over 21 times, which is nearly three turnovers more per game than the Mastodon defense usually forces and nine turnovers more than Wright State’s average. Credit could be given to the Raiders for not allowing the turnovers to completely bury them. The Mastodons were only able to turn those 21 turnovers into 18 points. In comparison, Wright State was able to turn just nine PFW turnovers into 14 points.
Reid led the scoring for the Mastodons with 19. Nelson added a quiet 18 points, and Krasovec added 14 points in 26 minutes of play. Krasovec had another good night in the post with her one-on-one post moves working fairly well. Nelson did the bulk of the rebounding for the Mastodons with eight, and Lee was the next highest on the team with five. Lee continued to facilitate well with six assists, with only a single turnover in her team high 36 minutes of play.
The Mastodons fall to third place in the Horizon League standings, but they look to remain in a critical top three position when they travel across Ohio on Saturday, February 7 when PFW takes on Cleveland State. In their first matchup, Purdue Fort Wayne took the win in Fort Wayne 80-70. It was a battle in the paint with Nelson scoring a game-high 23 points, and Izabella Zingaro led the Vikings with 22 of her own. The game is scheduled to start at 2:00pm ET and will be broadcasted on ESPN+.
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