Wright State basketball: Raiders take care of Urbana, gear up for holiday tourney

Grant Basile scored 19 points in 17 minutes of action to lead Wright State past Urbana on Wednesday night. Joseph Craven/WSU Athletics

Grant Basile scored 19 points in 17 minutes of action to lead Wright State past Urbana on Wednesday night. Joseph Craven/WSU Athletics

Wright State coach Scott Nagy didn’t need to worry whether his players might be looking to pad their scoring averages against Division-II Urbana on Wednesday.

If anything, they were a little too pass-happy for Nagy’s tastes.

“There were probably some shots we should have taken that we passed up. Sometimes, it leads to turnovers when you over-pass the ball,” he said.

»RELATED: Raiders rout Urbana to move to 4-1

“But we played a lot of people, and we didn’t have one guy who took double-figure attempts. I thought our guys did a good job of really putting their teammates first.”

Wright State had 21 assists on 33 baskets and shot 55 percent in an 88-51 victory. Reserve center Grant Basile had 19 points, six rebounds and two blocks in 17 minutes, while Cole Gentry had 13 points and Loudon Love 12.

Eleven players scored, and nobody played more than 26 minutes. But that was probably the team’s last chance for a laugher, at least for a while.

With the Blue Knights out of the way, there’s nothing but quality non-league opponents the rest of the way, beginning with the Gulf Coast Showcase on Monday.

“The guys know every game we play from here on out can go either way,” Nagy said. “I was thinking about it today driving in — we probably have the toughest home non-conference schedule I’ve ever coached against.”

Here are five things we learned:

Not happy: Nagy pulled three starters in the first three minutes, and he gave his players an earful during a timeout after a sloppy start produced only an 11-9 lead.

That seemed to work. The Raiders soon went on a 21-2 run and led 38-19 at halftime.

“To me, it looked lackadaisical,” he said. “We started out the game with two turnovers right away. That’s one of the concerns I have about our team. We just don’t take care of the basketball,” he said.

“If it looks like guys aren’t ready to go, we’re just going to put someone else in — particularly in a game like this. You have to make sure guys stay sharp.”

Impressed: Urbana coach Josh Gibson didn't want to pass up a chance to play a D-I opponent, even though his team had to play the previous night and lost, 79-72, at Central State.

“They’ve got a really nice team,” he said of the Raiders. “They’ve got a lot of guys who have a complementary skill set. They play together well. They do a nice job of really playing the game at a pace that’s tough to stay with. I think they have a great opportunity to have a really strong year.”

Perspective: Nagy admitted the one-point home loss to Kent State on Saturday was tough to shake. The Raiders squandered a nine-point lead in the final 2:29.

“Coaches take it harder than players do,” he said. “But then I’m the one who has to get by it the quickest and develop a vision for how we’re going to respond to it.”

He had a pitch-perfect message for his players.

“If you stay focused on the process, the results will happen. If you stay focused on the results, you’ll mess the process up,” he said. “Winning and losing never says anything about who you are as a person or a man. But how you respond to it says everything.”

Local flavor: Fairborn product Shaunn Monroe started for Urbana and scored a team-high 11 points.

Tippecanoe grad Caiden Smith came off the bench and had four points and three assists. And Springfield native Anthony Freeman chipped in two points.

Coming up: The Raiders face Weber State at 5 p.m. Monday in the Gulf Coast Showcase, an eight-team tournament for mid-major programs in Estero, Fla. They'll face either Murray State or La Salle on Tuesday at a time to be determined.

Their next home game is Dec. 3 against Western Kentucky.


MONDAY’S GAME

Wright State vs. Weber State, 5 p.m., 106.5

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