DAYTON – Alexis Hutchison turned in a career-best 37 points and the Wright State women's basketball team gave West Virginia all it could handle Monday morning, but the Raiders came up just short 77-72 on the road.
Wright State (6-6) now briefly returns home before traveling west to take part in the Holiday Hoops Tournament in Las Vegas on Thursday and Friday. Wright State takes on Wyoming on Thursday before meeting Presbyterian on Friday. Both Vegas matchups will tip off at 5:30 p.m. ET and fans can follow the action on FloHoops and live stats.
Playing in their second-straight Education Day morning tipoff, the Raiders trailed by one at the break before leading most of the second half against West Virginia (10-0). Wright State used a
Layne Ferrell three-pointer for the first points of the second half and moments later got a jumper from Hutchison to gain control, leading by as many as five three times in the third quarter. The Raiders took a two-point lead into the fourth quarter and again led by as many as five coming down the stretch before West Virginia finally made its move.
The hosts tallied five straight points, all from the free throw line, to take a 61-60 lead with six minutes to play and set up the back-and-forth down the stretch that saw four tied scores in that timespan. The Raiders pushed their lead to 69-67 with 3:26 remaining when Hutchison hit three free throws, but that turned out to be Wright State's last lead, with West Virginia tying the game with a pair of free throws of their own moments later. A Hutchison three-pointer pulled the Raiders within one again with 25 seconds remaining, but the hosts hit four of their final six free throws in the last 20 seconds to close the afternoon.
Neither side led by more than five all afternoon as the game featured 13 lead changes and 12 tied scores, with both team's largest scoring runs being eight-straight points.
Hutchison finished 11-for-17 from the floor, hitting six of her 11 three-point attempts, while she was also 9-of-10 from the free throw line on the way to her 37 points, bettering her previous career-high of 33 points scored in November 2022 against Indianapolis when she played at Malone. It was her ninth game this season with 15-plus points and fourth game with more than 20 points scored after she had 21 points at the halftime break.
Layne Ferrell also finished in double digits, tallying 14 points of her own, while
Kacee Baumhower added eight points and
Lauren Scott chipped in seven points, all coming in the first quarter.
Wright State ended the afternoon 12-for-26 from the three-point line, the second time this season the Raiders have connected on 12 threes in a game. Overall, Wright State shot 51 percent (24-for-47) from the floor and was 12-for-14 from the free throw stripe, with 10 of those attempts coming in the final quarter.
West Virginia saw three players finish in double figures, led by Ja'Naiya Quinerly's 30 points. The hosts shot just 39 percent overall from the floor (22-of-56) and had just four three-pointers in 16 attempts, but were 29-of-38 (76 percent) from the free throw line while forcing the Raiders into 25 turnovers that resulted in 30 points off those takeaways.
