Jan. 8, 2014

Box Score | Notes

DAYTON, Ohio - Bethany Watterworth had a game-high 24 points and Elena Popkey tallied a season-best 20 points as the Oakland women's basketball team (5-9, 0-1 HL) dropped its Horizon League opener to Wright State (13-4, 2-0 HL), 94-85, Wednesday night at the Nutter Center. OU falls to 4-3 in its last seven league opening games.

"Great effort on the road against a really good Wright State team," said head coach Jeff Tungate. "Our kids never quit. We obviously can't defend like that and win on the road, but their athleticism gave us some real problems. We dug ourselves too big of a hole in the first half with careless turnovers and giving up second shots. I'm really proud of how we fought back in the second half though and saw many positives tonight."

Watterworth recorded her season-best point total on 10-of-16 shooting including hitting three 3-pointers. Popkey earned her fourth career 20-point performance with a career-high eight free throws, while Olivia Nash finished with 11 points and 11 rebounds for her fifth double-double of the season. Peyton Apsey added 12 points on 5-of-6 shooting and Kim Bee tallied 11 points. The 85 points scored is the most by OU against a Division I opponent since March 7, 2011.

Oakland trailed by as many as 21 points in the second half but with 4:51 remaining the Golden Grizzlies went on a 11-3 run capped off by back-to-back triples by Watterworth to cut the lead to 86-79. OU was unable to cut into the lead further as the teams traded points until the final buzzer. Oakland shot 48.7 percent in the second half and tied for the most points scored in a half this season with 57.

OU trailed 42-28 at half as Wright State ended the opening period on a 22-8 run with the score tied 20-20 with 8:19 remaining. WSU's Tay'ler Mingo scored 11 of her 19 points in the first half by going a perfect 5-of-5 from the floor as the Raiders caused 13 turnovers and outscored the Golden Grizzlies 20-10 in the paint.

Wright State was led by Ivory James with 24 points and Mingo with 19. Wright State's Kim Demmings, the Horizon League's leading scorer, was held to just 12 points despite coming into the game averaging just under 21 points per contest.

Oakland will be on the road again on Saturday as they take on in-state rival Detroit inside Calihan Hall for an Horizon League matchup starting at 2 p.m.

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