PREVIEW: Kentucky takes on Wright State prior to another lengthy break between games

It’s been five days since Kentucky women’s basketball last took the court and before that, it had been a week. Well, after the Wright State game, it’ll be a nine-day break for the Cats during the holiday season. That’s four games played in a three-week span.

Here’s what you need to know ahead of Kentucky’s game against Wright State.

Bio Blast

Kentucky is 1-0 all-time against Wright State, getting a 106-60 win over the Raiders in the first round of the 2014 NCAA Tournament. That year, Matthew Mitchell’s Cats advanced to the Sweet 16 before finally falling to 2-seed Baylor. Jennifer O’Neill shot 8-11 from the field to score a team-high 21 points in the win.

This season, Wright State is off to a rough 5-8 start. They started the year 3-1, but since then, they’ve lost seven of their last nine games, including three straight. The Raiders head into Friday’s matchup on the heels of a 65-46 loss at Youngstown State.

When you’re at a place like Wright State, getting players to stay home is a big deal considering it’ll be hard to go out and recruit elsewhere. Based in Dayton, Ohio, there are six players on their roster from the state of Ohio.

Scouting Report

One of those Ohio natives is guard Breezie Williams, who is their leading scorer, averaging 11.8 points per game. She and fellow guard Claire Henson (10.8 PPG) are the only Raiders who average double figures in the scoring column. As a team, Wright State is only averaging 68.6 points per game. Not horrible necessarily, but not stellar either.

Wright State does have Rylee Sagester, who is averaging 9.8 points, 1.9 assists and 1.4 rebounds per game while shooting 42.9% from three-point range. She’s their deadliest scorer from beyond the arc. Lauren Scott averages 8.9 points per game as well, giving Wright State another scoring option.

Williams averages 2.2 steals per game, but other than that, Wright State doesn’t do a whole lot defensively. As a team, they average 7.3 steals per game and just 1.9 blocks per game. Clara Strack (2.7 BPG) averages more blocks per game than their whole team, and Amelia Hassett (1.9 BPG) matches them.

Wright State Raiders roster

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Projected Kentucky Starters

#5 – Tonie Morgan

5-FOOT-8 – GUARD – SENIOR

12.8 PPG – 8.5 APG – 3 RPG

#0 – Jordan Obi

6-FOOT-1 – GUARD – GRADUATE STUDENT

12.3 PPG – 6.5 RPG – 1.1 APG

#32 – Amelia Hassett

6-FOOT-4 – FORWARD – SENIOR

10.5 PPG – 6.4 RPG – 1.9 BPG

#7 – Teonni Key

6-FOOT-5 – FORWARD – SENIOR

11 PPG – 5.8 RPG – 1.6 BPG

#13 – Clara Strack

6-FOOT-5 – CENTER – JUNIOR

15.4 PPG – 10 RPG – 2.7 BPG

Phoenix’s Prediction

Score: 95-43, Kentucky

MVP: Clara Strack

If you go look at Wright State’s schedule, it won’t take you very long to realize that they just aren’t a very good basketball team. Kind of like the Morgan State game, this should be one Kentucky has wrapped up early. I expect that to be the case on Friday as Clara Strack puts up a monster performance on the way to a dominant win.

How to Watch/Listen

Location	Tipoff	TV	Radio	Live Stats
Historic Memorial Coliseum (Lexington, KY)	6:30 p.m. ET	SEC Network+ (Noah Frary and Bria Goss)	630 WLAP, 790 WKRD, SiriusXM channel 390 (Darren Headrick)	StatBroadcast

Join The Discussion on KSBoard

Want to interact with the KSR crew during tonight’s game? Consider joining the conversation on KSBoard, where we’ll be sharing live updates while also answering questions and providing real-time analysis (and probably complaining about the officiating).