The Raiders scored 60 second-half points and rolled to a 103-74 win in their Horizon League opener Wednesday.
They shot 61.2% from the field and had crisp ball movement, notching 20 assists on 41 baskets and committing a season-low eight turnovers.
“I’ve said this before: We’re pretty good offensively. The question is, can we get stops when we’re not?” coach Scott Nagy said.
“It was a little bit of a slow start. But I thought we did a really good job against that zone.”
The Raiders (3-4) ran their record to 22-3 all-time against the Jaguars (3-5) and have 12 straight wins.
In that dazzling dozen, they’ve averaged 86.7 points and topped 100 four times.
Tanner Holden reached his average of 13 points in the first half and finished with a season-high 26 in 29 minutes. He was 11 of 14 from the field, making his lone 3-point try, and 3 of 3 on foul shots.
Brandon Noel had 17 points and a season-high 10 rebounds. Trey Calvin had 15 points and tied his season high with four assists. And A.J. Braun chipped in 11 points.
“We just have a lot of players who can score,” Holden said. “Coach Nagy hasn’t been emphasizing offense, but defense and getting stops. We know we can’t just try to out-score people — like we did against Colorado State (a 105-77 loss).
“But we play really well together. Our chemistry is really good on and off the court, and I think that carries over. We’re a selfless team.”
Credit: Joseph R. Craven
Credit: Joseph R. Craven
Calvin, the HL preseason player of the year who was averaging 23.2 points, recently passed Hall of Fame forward Bob Schaefer (1975-79) for seventh on the school’s all-time scoring list and has 1,663 points. Next up is Vernard Hollins (2001-04) at 1,700.
“When we see zone, it tends to slow Trey down a little bit,” Nagy said. “Really, I’m super proud of a lot of guys, but I’m mostly proud of him. He only took nine shots (making four). He didn’t force anything. He’s expected to be the MVP of the league. If you’re going to do that, in league games, you (supposedly) have to put up big numbers.
“But he didn’t do anything out of character — just because he felt like he had to put up big numbers.”
The only buzz-killer for the Raiders was their penchant for fouling. The Jags went 28 of 36 on free throws.
That kept Wright State from hitting its goal of allowing fewer than one point per possession for the second straight game (74 points, 72 possessions).
“We just foul too much — 36 free throws is incredible,” Nagy said. “Defensively, we were good, if we could just guard them without fouling.
“It’s something we’ve got to work on. We’re going to take teams out of most of their stuff, but what IUPUI did was just put their heads down and went after us. And we didn’t do a very good job.”
SATURDAY’S GAME
Wright State at Davidson, 3 p.m., ESPN+, 101.5, 1410
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