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Mechelle VoepelESPN.com
Wright State posted the first female NCAA tournament victory in the program’s history on Monday – and did so against the only team to win first place UConn this year.
Raiders number 13 defeated Arkansas number 4 66-62 at the Alamo Regional, making them one of three double-digit classifieds to win during Monday’s day session. In the Regional Market, No. 12 Belmont defeated No. 5 Gonzaga 64-57, and No. 11 BYU defeated No. 6 Rutgers 69-66. In Sunday’s first round games, the highest seeds were 16-0.
Wright State’s comeback is the first time since 2012 – when Georgia’s fourth place fell to 13th Marist place – that one of the top four players lost in the first round of the women’s tournament. Junior guard Angel Baker led Wright State with 26 points and 12 rebounds, including a 3-point basket with 30 seconds remaining that proved to be the winner of the game.
This is the third participation in the Wright State NCAA women’s tournament; the Raiders lost in the first round in 2014 and 2019. This season, the Raiders dropped their last two games of the regular season to Green Bay, but then won the Horizon League tournament and secured an automatic bid.
“I think we needed what happened to Green Bay to bring us back to reality a little bit,” said Wright State coach Katrina Merriweather, about thinking that her team was feeling a little confident. “I think it helped to reorient us. They have been locked up ever since.
“Playing against Arkansas is not an easy task; they are a great team with great offensive power. I think we just remain true to who we are and we don’t try to do anything special.”
Arkansas coach Mike Neighbors said he did not prepare his team well enough, but he credited Wright State for “clearly the best end-to-end team”.
Arkansas defeated UConn – the seed head on the River Walk Regional – 90-87 on January 28. But the Razorbacks had a difficult end to the season, being defeated by Ole Miss in the second round of the SEC tournament and falling in the first round of the NCAA tournament. A strong offensive team for most of the season, the Razorbacks had 60 and 62 points in the last two games.
“[Wright State] opened in the area, which shows how badly I had prepared ourselves, “said the neighbors.” We hadn’t worked in an area for a few weeks. I didn’t think they were going to play; they did. It bothered us. I did a terrible job in the last two weeks, in the last three weeks, taking us to the peak at the right time. I think we peaked too early.
“I asked so much about these kids in the middle of our year, trying to get to that point, that I forgot to focus on the finish line. I apologized to them for this. This will be a ‘woulda, shoulda, coulda’ summer. ‘ We will do this all summer, watching this film. “
Arkansas was led by the 27 points of senior guard Chelsea Dungee; she is due to be chosen in the first round of the WNBA draft on April 15th.
Merriweather, whose father runs a successful AAU program in Indianapolis, played collegially in Cincinnati. As a young assistant in Purdue in the mid-2000s, she became involved in recruiting violations and then left the college game for a few years.
“When you accept that kind of position, you accept the responsibility that comes with it,” Merriweather told Dayton Daily News in 2016. “I was trying to help people and be a good person, but it was up to me to protect my job and I I didn’t do a good job. “
She returned to coaching as an assistant at Wright State in 2010 and then became the head coach in 2016. Now she has led the Raiders to the biggest win in the program’s history.
“I think we love the idea of a David against Goliath,” said Merriweather. “And the opportunity to win games that people think we shouldn’t have based on our ranking. I think Angel Baker is one of the best guards in the country. I know people may be surprised that she is at Wright State, but there are a lot of guards really good in the country. It’s all about recruiting and identifying the players that best fit your system. And every now and then, you get an Angel Baker at Wright State. “