Raiders seeking success on road
WSU plays five of its next six games away from the Nutter Center.
Wright State has FAIRBORN — figured out the formula for winning at home. Now, the Raiders need to find a way to win on the road if they hope to be a serious contender for the Horizon League title.
Scott Nagy’s team w ill get that chance in the next couple of weeks. Five of the next six games are on the road, beginning with a three-game trip that starts with a pair of games in Michigan this weekend.
“For me it’s just one road game right now,” Nagy said referring to tonight’s matchup with Detroit Mercy. “We know that championships are won on the road. Average teams can win at home, good teams win on the road.”
The Raiders own a share of the Horizon League lead after backto-back wins at home last week. Wright State (10-5, 2-0 league) has won three in a row and 10 of its past 12.
“We’re pretty good defensively,” Nagy said. “Offensively, I feel like
we’ve gone backwards a little bit. We haven’t shot the ball well and we really haven’t all year, but we’re a better shooting team than we’ve shot the ball.”
Wright State’s defense is the best in the league, allowing opponents just 64 points a game while creating 17 turnovers.
“Sometimes we take care of the ball, sometimes we don’t,” Nagy said. “When we do we’re hard to beat, when we don’t you have a chance to beat us.”
The Raiders face a struggling Detroit team. The Titans (4-11, 0-2) have lost nine straight, and although they lead the league in scoring (83.9 points per game), they’re also tops at the other end of that statistical category, allowing 90 points per game to opponents.
“They’ve struggled during the streak but they’ve all been relatively tight games,” Nagy said. “Obviously they’re going to feel good going home. There’s going to be a lot of energy in the gym, and the game is on TV so we know that early we’re going to have to be good and we’ve gotten off to some pretty bad starts lately. I think it’s going to be important that the beginning of this game we’re ready to go.”
Wright State and Northern Kentucky not only share the Horizon League lead, the Raiders and the Norse are also travel partners, which means NKU is also in Michigan this weekend.
The Norse are at Oakland on tonight in a matchup of the top two teams in the preseason poll. They switch opponents with Wright State on Sunday.
The Raiders wrap up their road trip at NKU on Thursday. Contact this reporter at 937-259-2142 or email Mike. Hartsock@cmgohio.com.