But they battled the imposing Hilltoppers — who have the nation’s tallest player in 7-foot-5 center Jamarion Sharp and another 7-1 forward — while finishing with a 39-35 rebounding edge and making it tough on their hosts defensively.
WKU (8-1) shot 44.1% and was 3 of 18 on 3′s.
“Let’s face it, we were terrible offensively. We just were,” Nagy said on his post-game radio show. “But if we guard like that every night, we’re going to win a lot of games. I know we will.
“I’m not concerned about offense. We’ll score. But if we hadn’t guarded tonight, we would’ve gotten beat by 30.”
Star guard Trey Calvin, who was held out of the starting lineup for the second straight game, scored 20 points on 10-of-21 shooting. He had averaged just 9.3 points in his previous four games.
Sophomore center A.J. Braun had 13 points and 10 rebounds for the first double-double of his career. And Amari Davis had 11 points with three steals.
But WKU guard Dayvion McKnight had 32 points, making 13 of 17 shots and 6 of 7 free throws.
The first-team All-Conference USA pick is the second opposing player in as many games to top 30 after Youngstown State’s Dwayne Cohill poured in 43 on Sunday.
In six-plus years under Nagy, only eight other foes have topped the 30-point mark.
But the Raiders (5-5) showed fight after allowing 88 and 80 points in their previous two games for their first 0-2 start in the Horizon League in 11 years.
They were giving up 73.9 points per game.
“We guarded, we rebounded, we played tough. But we just, for whatever reason — their length inside was some of that — we were 1 of 11 in the first half on 3′s. When you have shots, you have to jump up and make them,” Nagy said.
“But I can take this over what we had (in the two HL losses). This, we can handle.”
The game was tight most of the way. Calvin made a layup with 6:37 to go for a 53-53 tie, but the Raiders were blanked on their next four possessions (three misses and a turnover), and WKU scored six straight points.
A dunk by Sharp, who had three blocks (he’s averaging a national-best 5.0 per game), with 3:45 to go made it 59-53, prompting Nagy to call time out.
The Raiders pulled to within two on Davis’ 3 with 17 seconds left — his first trey this season after seven misses.
But McKnight was fouled with 15 seconds left and hit two free throws to put the game away.
“Defensively, we held them under one point per possession. We, obviously, were under that too. But I think this will help us a lot,” Nagy said.
WEDNESDAY’S GAME
Wright State at Akron, 7 p.m., 980
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