It did Thursday.
Youngstown State came into the Nutter Center with energy and a won’t-back-down mentality, dominating the boards and rolling to an 88-77 victory.
The Penguins, who have won four straight in the series and seven of the last nine games, muscled their way to a 38-26 rebounding edge, pulling down 13 on the offensive end.
Asked for his summary of the game, Nagy said: “It’s the rebounding. It’s pretty simple. You look at the rest of stats, and they’re fairly even.
“You can’t get beat by 12 on the glass and think you’re going to win games.”
The defeat was costly. The Raiders fell to 12-11 overall and 7-5 in the league, while YSU improved to 17-6 and 9-3.
Leading the nation in field-goal shooting at 53.6%, Wright State shot 56.7 in the first half but led by only one because YSU kept prolonging possessions with offensvie rebounds..
“It just felt like we were going to have to out-score them because we weren’t very good defensively,” said Nagy, whose team shot 50% for the night. “They had eight offensive rebounds. It’s why they were in the game.
“We shot almost 57% in the first half and we were up one point. We’ve already shown that formula doesn’t work very well for us. We’re pretty inconsistent.”
Trailing by 12 with 6:23 to go, Brandon Noel hit a pair of free throws. Tanner Holden made a jumper. And a soft full-court press created a turnover and led to a Holden breakaway to make it 77-71.
But that’s as close as the Raiders could get.
The Penguins put five players in double figures. D.J. Burns, the league’s leading rebounding, had 17 points and 12 boards.
“I think they just played harder than us overall.” said Trey Calvin, who scored a game-high 22 points for his 25th straight double-figure game. “They were more prepared for this game than we were.”
A.J. Braun went 8 of 8 from the field for 16 points, and Noel had 16.
Holden scored 13 points and fouled out with 1:56 to go.
“The rebounding numbers are atrocious, and they just seemed like they were more physical than us,” said Noel, who had just three. “They kind of wanted it more, and I hate to say that. It was just a tough game.”
It also was a feisty game — at least when it concerned YSU’s spunky guard, Brett Thompson.
After he made a jumper for a 79-71 lead, he turned to the Raider bench, flexed his muscles and shouted a couple of expletives in that direction.
Asked about it afterward, Nagy said: “That’d be a question you have to ask the official.”
Pausing briefly, he added: “He heard what (Thompson) said. He said he didn’t, but I know he did.”
SUNDAY’S GAME
Wright State at Northern Kentucky, 2 p.m., ESPN+, 101.5, 1410
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