Excerpt from the Dayton Daily News
By Tom Archdeacon
The one no one expected to break down – the one who admitted she came in here less than a year ago “anti-social “ and having “no clue “what Wright State women’s basketball was about – was the one who melted the most at midcourt.
It was Senior Day at Wright State and Imani Partlow, a grad student transfer who was playing for Xavier at this time last season — was one of four Raiders players honored after their 70-65 victory over Youngstown State at the Nutter Center Sunday afternoon.
The other three — Emily Vogelpohl, Mackenzie Taylor and Symone “Junior” Simmons — have spent four seasons here and now make up the winningest class in WSU women’s basketball history.
Counting this season’s ever-growing 22-6 mark, the group has now amassed 94 victories against 37 defeats.
But as Partlow learned, it’s not just the record that defines this bunch.
While everybody else was surprised when she pulled her No. 45 jersey up over her face and briefly wept, Partlow was not:
“I knew the tears were coming because of this environment. I couldn’t keep them from coming.”
Same as she couldn’t fend her new teammates off when they showed up at her room soon after she got here and all but willed her into their group.
“I am anti-social,” she admitted. “I stayed to myself. I ate by myself. Came back to my room by myself. That’s what I was used to. Then they started coming to my room and being all in my space. I was like, ‘What’s going on?’
“I had to understand this was what it was about here.”
And once she dried her tears Sunday, the sturdy 6-foot-1 post player — microphone in hand as she stood on the gleaming Nutter Center floor — addressed the other players, especially the three other seniors, and then gave special acknowledgement to WSU head coach Trina Merriweather and her staff.
