Andrea Holden fed him the ball for his layup near the end of the first half.
But Huibregtse will be the first to tell you, the statistical account doesn’t tell the whole story when it comes to him. He got several more assists on this night and they all came from the same person:
WSU trainer LaShaunta’ Jones or, as he refers to her, “Ms. Jones.”
“She did an amazing job,” he said. “She helped me in every way possible.”
Jones is the big reason Huibregtse was able to play and score 11 points against the Grizzlies, even though a few hours before the game his back and hamstrings were so tight and stiff and it was so painful to move that there was some question if he could even take the court, let alone play almost 29 minutes.
He said on New Year’s Day — three days after a subpar outing at Cleveland State and some 24 hours before the Raiders would play Green Bay — he “took a wrong step in practice” and suddenly felt “a tightness in my back and hamstrings.”
The issue brought back some painful memories from a season that ended after just three games three years ago.
“I have some past issues with back problems,” he said. “Sophomore year I had a surgery they call a microdiscectomy to deal with a nerve issue.”
The procedure removes a portion of the herniated disc that is compressing a nerve root, causing pain, numbness, or weakness.
But Jones doesn’t believe this problem was related to that issue:
“Something like this can come from simply standing up the wrong way or moving a certain way. It caused a spasm, and the hamstring tightened because of it.”
Jones worked with Huibregtse every day since the issue occurred and especially Thursday night before the game.
“He came in at 5 and we worked on it for just about an hour, right until he went out for warm-ups,” she said. “We did manual stretching, some heat, a little massage and some trigger point releasing — all of it just to keep him loose.”
Head coach Clint Sargent has watched his redshirt senior guard — one of the most integral parts of this Raiders’ team — deal with a lot these past couple of games:
“He’s got the back issue and isn’t feeling himself. He’s got the pressure of being a leader and the pressure of being coached. He’s getting it from every which angle in terms of a true leadership position.
“Man, when some things are out of your control and so much gets put on your plate, you have to step up and he’s done it.”
Sargent called it a “real gritty” effort:
“He’s grown up. He’s turning into a man right in front of our eyes. That’s a hard process but he hasn’t (wavered). He’s embracing it.”
A challenging night on the bench
Huibregtse is one player the Raiders need on the court.
He’s their second leading scorer (14.2 ppg), leads the team in made three pointers, is tops in free throw percentage and second in assists.
Most of all, he’s a veteran presence on the court, Thursday night was his 109th game in a Raiders’ uniform.
That this one wasn’t spent with his warm-up togs on all night required a lot of effort once he left the training room, too.
He and Jones double-teamed the back and hamstring problems every time he came to the sidelines, which was often, including early in the game when the guy he was guarding pushed him off and he stepped “weird” and tweaked his back again.
Each time he came out of the game, he’d walk to the end of the bench and Jones would bring out a big, black heat and vibration belt. It looked almost like one of those big championship belts boxers and wrestlers get, but this one was worn backwards.
He’s strap that on a while and then take a small massage gun — fitted with a paddle device so it could be pressed flat against the muscles — and run it over his lower back and on the back of each thigh.
When he finished, he’d stand at the end of the bench and occasionally bend forward a bit to stretch. He never sat during the game.
“He doesn’t like to sit,” Jones said. “He wants to keep moving. He believes if he sits, his adrenaline slows.”
As soon as he was ready, Huibregtse would walk toward Sargent and he’d go back into the game.
The process worked, though it was a challenge.
“It wasn’t that enjoyable out there, I’ll be truthful,” he admitted afterward. “But the win was very enjoyable and that made it worth it at the end of the day.”
The Raiders, now 9-8, trailed Oakland — which is better than its 5-12 record — by 13 points midway through the first half. In fact, the Grizzlies led over 31 minutes of the game.
Huibregste pair of three pointers early in the second half helped Wright State cut the deficit to one.
3-point streak
With those treys, Huibregtse now had at least one three pointer in 26 straight games. That’s the longest streak by a Raider since Grant Benzinger had a string of 34 games from Jan 29, 2017 to February 1, 2018.
“Honestly, I hadn’t thought of that until you mentioned it,” he said afterward. “My main job is to shoot threes so it’s good to know I’m making them.”
He said he’s been a three-point shooter since he first started playing the game as a kid on his driveway back in Wisconsin:
“I always played against my brothers and shooting threes against them was better than driving into them and getting pushed to the ground onto the concrete. It was easier making them mad by shooting threes. I liked shooting them and I’ve always been pretty good at it.”
The one thing he’s better at is free throw shooting (81.8 percent) and when he was knocked to the floor on a three-point attempt with 91 seconds left — and the game knotted 58-58 — he made all three free throws.
“Free throws are free throws,” he said. “Whether your back hurts or not, you have to make free throws.”
Thursday night his dad was in the stands watching him. In the morning he’d drive back to Wisconsin.
As for the winter storms, Huibregtse shrugged: “We’re from Wisconsin. We’re pretty used to snow.”
Bad weather is one thing; a bad back is another,
Although he and Jones would end the night back in the training room for an ice treatment, he knew he’d also be seeing her soon enough in the day ahead.
“Sleeping’s okay, but getting up in the morning is brutal,” he said. “Everything is tight again. It’s not enjoyable.”
And that would mean hobbling back to “Ms. Jones,” in need of another assist.
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