Raiders hit the road, face Youngstown State Thursday

The Wright State women's basketball opens a two-game road trip this week, beginning on Thursday night when the Raiders travel north to Youngstown State to face the Penguins for the final time in regular-season action. Tipoff is scheduled for 7 p.m.

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Wright State is 12-10 overall and 7-4 in Horizon League play coming into Thursday's matchup, while Youngstown State is 11-11 overall and with a 4-7 mark in HL action.

The Raiders are coming off of a 67-77 loss to Milwaukee Saturday afternoon inside the Nutter Center, despite winning the opening tip and holding a nine point lead with five minutes left to play in the first quarter. That wouldn't be enough to hold off an aggressive Panther team who cut the lead to one heading into the second quarter. At halftime, Milwaukee headed into the locker room up six and would carry the momentum for the remainder of the contest. Wright State fought back from a 12 point deficit to pull within eight but that wouldn't be enough.

Sophomore Angel Baker had a team-leading 24 points, for her second consecutive double-digit scoring game, finishing the contest shooting 11-for-25 from the field and 2-for-7 from three point range. The Indiana native pulled down four rebounds for the Raiders and provided three assists as well. Anisja Harris finished with 11 points, shooting 4-for-8 from the field and 3-for-7 from three point range. Notably, the sophomore pulled down five defensive rebounds for the Raiders. Michal Miller and Shamare Hale both added nine points for Wright State as Miller had a game-leading eight assists and Hale pulled down a game-leading eight rebounds.
As a team, Wright State leads the Horizon League in rebounds per game (42.50) and total rebounds (935) – marks that rank as the 22nd – and 11th most in the NCAA, respectively.

SCOUTING THE OPPONENT

YSU is 23-4 at Beeghly Center since the start of last season, and it will need to defend home court if it wants to earn a first-round home game in the Horizon League Tournament. The Penguins are eighth in the standings currently but just a game out of sixth, which is the threshold for playing at home in the first round.
Youngstown State has started at least three freshmen in 14 games, and six freshmen are averaging at least 15.5 minutes in conference play. Those six freshmen have accounted for 57 percent of YSU's scoring in HL games. Add in junior transfer Ny'Dajah Jackson, and 72 percent of YSU's points in league play have come from players who were high school seniors or redshirts last season.
John Barnes is in his seventh season at the helm of the Youngstown State women's basketball program. In 2018-19, Youngstown State went 22-10 and earned at-large berth into the Women's NIT. The Penguins won at least 21 games for the third time in Barnes' six seasons, and they set new program records with 16 home victories and 13 Horizon League wins. Barnes earned the 250th win of his career during the season, and he celebrated his 100th victory at Youngstown State.

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Players Mentioned

Angel Baker

Anisja Harris

Michal Miller

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