“They couldn’t stop us, but we really couldn’t stop them,” he said.
Nagy had a similar feeling on the bench at Purdue Fort Wayne on Saturday. The Raiders gave up 98 points — tying for the second-most allowed in any league game in program history.
But they won by piling up 106 points. The Mastodons REALLY couldn’t stop them.
And Nagy had a somewhat surprising take on his defense.
“I really think, most of the game, we were pretty good defensively,” he said. “They’re a high-octane offense. What’s amazing is the amount of times we turned the ball over and still scored 106 points.”
The Raiders coughed it up 17 times, their second-most turnovers this season.
“I really do feel like we guarded pretty well,” he said. “You can’t blame your defense when you turn the ball over, and they go down and make a layup. That doesn’t have anything to do with your defense.”
The Raiders (8-8, 3-2) shot 66.1% from the field, and their 106 points were the most in a Horizon League game since Cleveland State beat PFW, 108-104, on March 2, 2021.
They’ve given up 100 points a handful of times over the years in non-league games, including a 105-77 loss at Colorado State in the season opener and a 102-97 double-overtime defeat to Davidson in the first game last year.
But they’ve rarely been torched to that extent by conference foes.
Milwaukee beat them, 98-65, on Feb. 27, 2003. The only league foe to top that total was UIC in its 109-84 win on Jan. 29, 1994, in Wright State’s third year in Mid-Continent Conference.
But the Raiders tied their most points ever against a conference opponent and reached triple digits for the third time this season.
That’s not a program record, though. The run-’em-ragged style of legendary coach Ralph Underhill produced 100-point games with regularity.
They had 10 in 1990-91, seven in 1992-93 and 1989-90 and six in 1988-89 (their second year in Division I).
They once scored a combined 265 points in back-to-back games, beating Morehead State, 129-63, and Chicago State, 136-91.
The defensive-minded Nagy is still trying to adjust to having an offensive-oriented team. But a lot of coaches would love to trade places with him.
The Raiders lead in the nation in field-goal shooting at 53.7%. They’re scoring 84.8 points per game (20th in the nation) and giving up 80.2 (336th out of 350 teams).
Those numbers aren’t likely to waver much the rest of the way, at least not on offense. More games are coming against the bottom tier of the league, including winless Detroit Mercy, which is averaging 60.1 points per game.
But as Nagy pointed out: “That combination has gotten us to 8-8. I keep saying that. It’s not like we’re just blowing teams out. That’s where our defense has to get better.”
WEDNESDAY’S GAME
Wright State at Robert Morris, 7 p.m., ESPN+, 101.5, 1410
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