It was one of the craziest sequences all year and the perfect sort of play to define this Wright State team.

In the first half Wednesday at the Nutter Center, Detroit’s Jason Calliste dribbled the ball off his knee near the free-throw line. Wright State’s Reggie Arceneaux got a hand on it, and then Matt Vest dove and flipped it up court. Arceneaux and Detroit’s Ray McCallum gave chase and Arceneaux dove headfirst, batting the ball across the halfcourt line.

Then it was Jerran Young’s turn. The Wright State junior leaped over Arceneaux and went to the floor, where he beat a Detroit defender and knocked the ball to the free-throw line. Waiting was his teammate Cole Darling, who dove and with one arm delivered a perfect bounce pass to Vest, who was streaking to the basket, for a layup.

All five Wright State players on the floor touched the ball in a matter of seconds, and while it didn’t make a difference in the end — the Raiders lost for the third straight game, 83-76 — it was the type of gritty play that made Wright State so successful for most of the season. The Raiders are struggling now, but no one doubts coach Billy Donlon has a team with heart and talent.

The question is whether Wright State (14-8 overall) will be able to rebound from its worst stretch of the season and make some noise in the Horizon League race in the final month of the regular season, beginning with a 7 p.m. home game against Loyola on Monday.

“We’re obviously disappointed in the loss,” said Vest on Friday, “but we met this morning with coach and watched the film and his attitude and mindset is a lot of confidence and belief. Something he talked about is there is such a fine line between winning and losing. Just because we lost three in a row, the sky isn’t falling. We’re still a good team. We’ve just got to continue to believe that and remain confident, and everything will work out.”

A little perspective helps. The Raiders aren’t going to run away with the regular-season title, as the most optimistic fan might have hoped after their 4-0 start, but the league isn’t running away from them.

Going into Saturday’s action, the Raiders were one of four teams — with Illinois-Chicago, Green Bay and Youngstown State — tied for third place at 5-4. Valparaiso (7-2) and Detroit (7-3) aren’t that far ahead.

“I think our guys are reeling from a confidence standpoint, and we’ve got to get that back,” Donlon said. “We’re a team that can beat anybody in the league, and we’re also a team that anybody can beat.”

Donlon has reacted to the losing streak by reminding the players that minutes are always up for grabs. The Raiders have stuck with the same starting lineup for most of the season, except when injuries or illnesses have affected it: Darling, Arceneaux, Vest, Kendall Griffin and Tavares Sledge.

The lineup and the distribution of minutes could change depending on what the coaches see in practice this weekend.

“I told our guys, ‘Everything’s open,’” Donlon said. “I didn’t say that in the sense that I’m disappointed from the standpoint that guys aren’t trying or we’re not competing. When you have a couple of days to get ready, when you’ve been beat a couple times at home, no one needs to feel secure in their position on the team in terms of playing time.

“What happens these next couple days in practice will determine who plays or who starts, especially when you have the team we do. Every night it’s a different person.”

Donlon has also talked to the team about its tendency to shoot too many 3-pointers. The Raiders average 18 3-point attempts per game, but they took a season-high 34 against Detroit and made nine. That’s 27 percent shooting, which marks the fourth time in the last five games, they’ve shot under 30 percent.

“The one thing I told my team, that I finally talked about, that I was afraid to talk about, is we shoot 31 percent from the 3 and not because we’re not a good 3-point shooting team, but because we take bad shots,” Donlon said. “We shoot 49 percent from the 2. That means every other time we shoot a two-point shot, it goes in the basket.

“As I told our guys, ‘I’m not a very smart coach if I don’t make you shoot 2s.’ We’re going to start doing that. The free rein on the 3s is going to end. Even though we were 7-of-17 in the first half, you can’t shoot 34 3s in a conference game and expect to win every often.”