Retirees Association

DDN Archdeacon: COVID-hit team finally gets a win

Coach Kari Hoffman talks to players

Excerpt from the Dayton Daily News

By Tom Archdeacon

The team that mostly refuses to take a shot now couldn’t miss one.

Wright State women’s basketball team – which was playing its first game in 21 days because positive COVID tests of some of its players and coaches had resulted in a quarantine of the majority-unvaccinated team, the cancellation of two games and the forfeiture of two more – was hitting nearly every shot it took in the early going of what would be a 91-60 rout of Division II Lake Erie College Wednesday at the Nutter Center.

It was WSU’s first victory after starting the season 0-7.

In the first 5½ minutes of play, the Raiders made all five of their three-point attempts and eight of their 10 total shots and that had the crowd of 2,700 Miami Valley school kids in attendance for the annual education day game, roaring in delight through the masks they all wore or tried to wear.

WSU’s unexpected marksmanship – the Raiders came into the game ranked 306th among Division I teams in field goal accuracy (35.3 percent) – had the players feeling almost invincible.

And that prompted White to flex both biceps in a two-armed muscle pose after she finished off an up-and-under drive to the basket with a perfect backward flip of the ball for two points.

Yet, when it’s come to another shot – the COVID-19 vaccines – the Raiders are considerably more timid.