They scored 56 points in the first half, which is more than they tallied in four full games last season.
The ball barely touched the ground during one crisp fastbreak as Mike La Tulip led Mark Alstork, who flipped an ally-oop to Steven Davis for a dunk.
As the crowd of 3,809 cheered, Davis waved his arms and cupped a hand at his ear to signal for more noise.
“It felt good,” said Alstork, who had a team-high 18 points on 6-of-19 shooting. “To come out with a 9-0 run, that got us motivated to get stops. Our main point was to play defense and let our offense come off that.”
“There’s a fine line between running and going too fast and turning the ball over,” La Tulip said. “I thought we did a good job in the first half. We had stretches later where we turned the ball over a little too much, but, for the most part, we had guys who ran consistently.”
The unveiling of the new attack did have a few glitches. The Raiders scored 32 points and shot 24 percent in the second half.
“I told players after the game, the way we played in the first half was a little bit of fool’s gold,” Nagy said. “We took a lot of bad shots in the first half, and they went in. You start thinking any shot you take is going to go in, and we saw what happened in the second half. … But I’d rather have our players aggressive offensively and we turn them down, versus trying to turn them up.”
Five things to know:
First five: Nagy didn't want to delve into his starting-lineup options before the game, but he went with the 6-8 Davis and four guards in Alstork, LaTulip, Justin Mitchell and Grant Benzinger .
Though nothing is set, the Raiders could cause problems by going small. Nagy said LaTulip, a graduate transfer from Illinois, is probably their top 3-point shooter (he was 3-for-5), while Benzinger hit 39 percent and Alstork 37.8 from the arc last season.
Rebounding is a potential issue, but the 6-3 Benzinger had 14 boards against Cedarville.
Waiting over: The Raiders' Davis played for the first time in nearly two years. He sat out 16 of the final 17 games in 2014-15 and all of last season with a foot injury.
He supplies athleticism inside, something WSU lacked last year. He also can stretch a defense. He swished a pair of 3-pointers and had nine points in 18 minutes.
Whole lotta Love: Louden Love, a 6-9, 300-pound freshman, showed some nice mobility inside, taking a pass and scoring within one minute of entering the game. He finished with four points in 10 minutes.
He’ll have to show he has the conditioning to compete for long stretches, but he could be effective in short bursts when the Raiders need some muscle.
Respectable foe: Joey Morlan had a team-high 13 points for the Yellow Jackets, who finished 14-15 last season and returned their top 10 scorers. They cut a 24-point first-half deficit to 13 with 8:40 left but couldn't get any closer.
Playing for real: Wright State opens the season Nov. 11 at Southern Illinois on ESPN3, followed by six straight games at the Nutter Center: Miami, Toledo, Ohio Dominican, CSU-Bakersfield, North Dakota and North Florida.
The Raiders’ only home game in December is against Urbana.
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