McKnight Dominates with 32 Points in Tops' Win Over Raiders

Saturday, December 10

Bowling Green, Ky.

6 p.m.

Western Kentucky University

-81,00 CUSA

Wright State

5-5,0-2Horizon

Wright St.

Western Ky.

Photo by: Steve Roberts/WKU Athletics

12/10/2022 9:30:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score Akot/McKnight Postgame Media HC Rick Stansbury Postgame Media Box Score (PDF)

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – After a 10-day hiatus from games, WKU Hilltopper Basketball returned to E.A. Diddle Arena on Saturday night and was led to victory over the Wright State Raiders by Davyion McKnight. The junior guard had 32 points in the Hilltoppers' 64-60 home win, resulting in a perfect home non-conference slate for the second time in three seasons.

WKU moves to 8-1 on the season, the best mark since the 2006-07 crew started with the same record through nine games.

"We knew this was going to be a tough game for a lot of reasons," said head coach Rick Stansbury. "Wright State is a good basketball team. They came off two tough losses… We didn't have very good preparation going into this game in the last 10 days. Just wasn't our normal preparation, we had guys out sick… We knew it was going to be a tough game. In the first half, it was uncharacteristic of us to have nine turnovers and about seven of those were self-inflicted turnovers… In the second half, we were much better."

"There's one thing we didn't do all night long, which is what makes it into a grind game sometimes, we didn't make 3's," Stansbury continues. "You all know that's something we've done pretty well. I don't know that any of the 3's we shot tonight weren't good shots… We just didn't make some shots. That's going to happen sometimes, but when you don't make them, you have to find other ways to dig in and we found ways to dig in."

For the first time this season, WKU's opponent scored the first points of the game, but the Hilltoppers didn't allow the lead to last long. They bounced back with an 11-2 run, including six points from McKnight.

The Raiders ended WKU's run with six straight points from their season leading scorer Trey Calvin, cutting into the WKU lead at 11-0 with 13:54 on the clock. The run held WKU scoreless for nearly five minutes, but Fallou Diagne put a stop to the bleeding with a layup assisted by Jordan Rawls.

That layup started another Hilltopper run of 8-2, taking a 19-12 lead with 8:13 remaining. Wright State was slowly able to chip away at WKU's lead, eventually stringing together seven straight points to take a 25-23 lead of their own with just over three minutes left in the half. The Raiders had the edge at halftime, 29-27.

Shortly after the break, WKU went on a 10-2 run between the 17:39 and 14:00 marks to take a 40-36 lead. The run included four points from McKnight as well as WKU's lone 3-pointers of the half: a long ball from Jairus Hamilton and another from Emmanuel Akot, the latter forcing Wright State to take a timeout.

The Raiders strung together their own 6-0 run to retake a lead, and the game was back and forth for the next six minutes. The Hilltoppers would hit a shot and Wright State would respond with another to tie it up.

WKU was finally able to take a 55-53 lead that would not be relinquished with a pair of free throws from McKnight with 5:04 on the clock. With the victory, the Hilltoppers move to 114-8 under Stansbury when leading with five minutes to play.

Wright State came as close as two points with just 17 seconds left, but WKU held them off again as McKnight iced the game with two more free throws.

Entering the contest, Wright State was fifth in the nation shooting over 50% from the field and the Hilltoppers held them to just 40.3% on Saturday night.

The Raiders has 12 offensive boards, scoring 11 second chance points, but WKU outscored them in the paint 34-28.

WKU had an uncharacteristic night from the arc, making only 3 of 18 attempts from 3-point range. The Hilltoppers did outshoot the Raiders at the free throw line, making 9 of 14 compared to Wright State's 3 of 4.

McKnight had the second 30-point game of his career, totaling 32, half of WKU's points. He shot 13 of 17 from the field and netting 6 of 7 from the charity stripe. He also added four rebounds, four steals and three assists, playing 35 minutes.

"McKnight was terrific," said Stansbury on the guard. "McKnight had his mid-range game going. He put us on his back and carried us tonight when we weren't at our best."

"It was a team effort," said McKnight on his performance. "Guys seeing me when I was open and I was just knocking down shots. My teammates, they were taking great shots and today they just weren't falling for everybody. But like I said, it was a team effort. They were setting me up in the right position and I felt like I just executed well tonight."

"All fall when I've been here, Dayvion was killing everybody in practice," said Akot of his teammate. "For me, it's like about time he did that, to be a honest. Dayvion is a really good player, a great player and he's great for us."

Jordan Rawls had five boards, seven points and three assists against no turnovers.

Wright State's Calvin led the Raiders with 20 points and five boards. WKU held him to 10 of 21 shooting and he did not make any 3's.

WKU will move into its final two non-conference games, both on the road. First up, the Hilltoppers will take on the in-state foe of the Louisville Cardinals on Wednesday night at 8 p.m. CT. The game will be nationally broadcasted from the KFC Yum! Center on ESPN2.