Wright State women win first outright Horizon League title

The Wright State women’s basketball team made history Saturday.

The Raiders scored a 73-64 road win over Oakland to capture the program’s first outright Horizon League title. In the process, it ended Green Bay’s 19-year reign atop the league.

Wright State wraps up the regular season 24-6 overall and 16-2 in the Horizon League. Green Bay finished 15-3.

“It shows that through obstacles and adversity over an 18-game period this team was able to pull off a 16-2 record and pull it together just in time to do something that hasn’t been done in Wright State basketball history,” Wright State coach Katrina Merriweather said. “I couldn’t be more thrilled for the kids.”

Emily Vogelpohl scored 13 points and grabbed seven rebounds to lead Wright State on Saturday. The Raiders had their way on the offensive boards with a 22-11 advantage over the Golden Grizzlies (6-23, 3-15). Symone Simmons led the way for WSU with 11 rebounds. She added nine points, four assists and two steals.

Simmons, who became the first WSU women’s player to record 1,000 career rebounds at Detroit on Thursday, also joined the 1,000 point-club on Saturday on a layup early in the fourth quarter.

The Raiders hit 11-of-15 free throws in the fourth quarter to put the game away.

Oakland’s Taylor Jones led all scorers with 18 points.

Wright State, the top seed, returns home to the Nutter Center on Tuesday to host No. 8 Oakland in the Horizon League tournament quarterfinal at 5:30 p.m.

“We’re going to come back and practice tomorrow because the turnaround is Tuesday, so we don’t have time off. We’re going to watch them (Oakland) again and prepare the way that we always do,” Merriweather said. “It’s hard to beat a team three times, especially when you play them back-to-back. We’re going to focus on our game plan and make sure that we can execute it.

“Going to the place where we’ve been undefeated at 9-0 during conference and to be able to play in front friends, family and fans and to have the opportunity to sleep in our own beds is something that they deserve.”

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