For the third time this season, the Wright State women’s basketball team is trying to adjust to the loss of a significant player.

Tayler Stanton, a 6-foot sophomore forward who was averaging a team-best 9.1 rebounds, missed the last two games before Christmas break with an illness, and coach Mike Bradbury isn’t sure when she’ll return or even if she’ll return this season. He spent his holiday figuring out a “magic plan,” something that will help the Raiders compete despite the loss of another post presence.

Wright State lost 6-1 junior Courtney Boyd and 5-11 sophomore Mylan Woods to ACL tears early this season. Stanton started the first nine games and averaged 6.4 points.

“We have to reinvent ourselves and figure out how to play,” Bradbury said. “It took us a few games after we lost Courtney and Mylan to figure out how to play, but we did. We found a style that fit us. We won three in a row, and then Tayler goes out. Now we’re back to square one.”

Heading into Sunday’s 7 p.m. game against Morehead State at the Nutter Center, the Raiders are 5-6. They followed victories over Akron, Urbana and Xavier with losses to Western Kentucky and St. Francis (Pa.) at the Wright State Invitational on Dec. 19 and 21.

Stanton scored 14 points against Urbana and Xavier and was named Horizon League Newcomer of the Week, but she missed both games of the Wright State Invitational. Bradbury hopes to have a better idea of Stanton’s situation by the end of this week, but he’s moving forward as if he might not have her for the rest of the season.

“We beat Akron and Xavier because we had Tayler and she could guard their best post players,” Bradbury said. “Western Kentucky comes in here with a kid who averages six points and four rebounds, and we don’t have a post player, and she gets 22 and 15. We’re not giving up. I’m not saying we can’t win more games, but we can’t play the way we are playing.”

Bradbury brought the players back a day early this week from the Christmas break. They didn’t practice Saturday through Tuesday and were scheduled to return Thursday, but had two practices Wednesday.

“We’re playing smaller,” Bradbury said. “We’re basically playing four guards and (6-0 sophomore) Breanna Stucke, who is basically a guard, too. She’s the biggest kid we’ve got. We’re going to end up playing some junk defenses and things like that. We even tried to do it last week, but it didn’t work. We gave up (an average of) 91 points a game. We got outrebounded by 15 in both games.”

Men’s basketball: Wright State’s 8-4 start has had a little something to do with the solid performance by the Horizon League this season. Seven of the nine teams are 7-5 or better.

Despite the loss of Butler to the A-10, the Horizon has jumped three spots in the Pomeroy Ratings to 12th. The Horizon is 11th in the Sagarin Ratings and 12th in the RPI Ratings and Basketball State ratings.

The Raiders, who host Mount St. Joseph at 2 p.m. Sunday, are 161st in the RPI and 118th in the Sagarin Ratings.

Wright State returned to practice Thursday night. Coach Billy Donlon gave the team off Sunday through Wednesday after Saturday’s 68-58 loss at Cincinnati.