Sometimes teams have a tendency to play down to their opponent's level. The game between WSU and YSU women was a battle for the basement and in the opening half of this game these two teams battled back and forth for the lead until the last 1:44 when the raiders took the lead for good, 24-22. The game was tied six times and the lead changed hands six times in the first half. At the buzzer, the Lady Raiders went to the locker room with a 29-22 lead.

As you could expect the stats for the first half were close. YSU lead in rebounds, 17-16. The Raiders shot 38.5% (10-26) compared to 29.2% (7-24) for the Penguins. Youngstown turned the ball over 11 times in the half for 13 WSU points. The Lady Raiders held their turnovers to 8, which YSU could only convert into two points. Both times shot 100% from the charity stripe - WSU was 7-7 and YSU was 6-6.

Junior LaShawna Thomas lead the Raiders with nine points and one rebound in the first half. Davis was leading the charge on the boards grabbing five rebounds while sinking six points. Seven of the eight players had at least one rebound and six had made some points. Expectations for this game did not indicate this should be so close and Wright State needed to step up their play. They did in the second half.

YSU hit a layup to start the second half. However, Davis answered with two lay-ups, a free throw and another layup, to give the Raiders a 38-24 lead at the 17:18 mark. The next time YSU would score was at the 12:37 mark with two free throws making the score 48-26. During the second half, this game was never in doubt. WSU was worried at one point when starter Paige Lowe went down with an ankle injury, but she was able to return to the game with six points.

Youngstown, even with one player making 14 points, could only shoot 20.5% (9-44) for the game. The Lady Raiders sank 47.2% (25-53) of their shots, including 85% (12-14) from the line. The Raiders only turned over the ball 15 times giving YSU five points, while picking up 32 points off of their 31 turnovers. The Raiders also finished with 14 steals in the game.

Davis finished a good night with 18 points and 10 rebounds. Thomas finished with 17 points two boards and three steals. Sophomore Maria Bennett also finished in double figures with 12 points and three steals. The 305 fans who watched this game got to see the Lady Raiders totally dominate a team in the second half. With the bench providing 21 points and the team getting 36 points in the paint, it was a good show for the ladies in the second half.

The Wright State women will now play host to two teams at Sinclair Community College. First will be UW-Milwaukee on Thursday Feb 4th at 7pm. Then Horizon League Leader UW-Green Bay will come to Dayton on Sat Feb 6th at 6pm. These are always two tough teams to play in the HL and Sinclair will be basically a neutral court, even if it is only a short distance from campus. The Lady Raiders are now on a two game winning streak. We will have to see if they can continue on this run.