Next game
Who: Wright State (9-6, 2-1) at UIC (5-10, 0-3)
When: 8 p.m. Thursday
Where: UIC Pavilion, Chicago
Radio: WONE-AM (980)
TV: WWRD
FAIRBORN — Vaughn Duggins was wearing his Velcro-attached brace with plastic to support the stress fracture in his back as he lined up for the deciding play.
The Wright State senior guard already had produced a statement game after sub-par performances in the previous two. He had helped the Raiders overcome poor shooting and sluggish play to force a tie with Wisconsin-Green Bay with 4.4 seconds left.
Duggins then collected the ball in the backcourt and sprinted to the other end. As the Green Bay defense rushed to protect the basket, Duggins hit a running 3-pointer with the horn blaring to give Wright State a 67-64 victory in front of 3,260 fans Saturday at the Nutter Center.
“I decided to stop and pull up, and it went in,” Duggins said. “It was amazing.”
It was another line on Duggins’ big-time WSU resume. He scored a career-high 26 points while playing with the stress fracture discovered earlier in the week.
“You can tell he’s in a lot of pain just by, if he falls down or lands awkwardly, the grimace he makes,” said WSU guard Troy Tabler, who scored 19 points.
Duggins shook it off to score 10 first-half points and help the Raiders (9-6, 2-1) take a 30-29 lead at the break. Green Bay (6-9, 1-3) took its biggest lead at 48-42 with 9:01 left on a three-point play by Jarvis Williams, who tied 9 for the team lead with 14 points.
It was grim for a WSU team that shot 34.6 percent in the game, including 6-of-17 from 3-point range. But Duggins scored seven straight points to make it 51-50 Wright State with 6:22 left, and neither team led by more than three the rest of the way.
Green Bay’s Steve Baker hit a 3-pointer from the left corner with 4.4 seconds left to tie it 64-64, and Wright State called a timeout. Duggins took the ball, sprinted and scored three of his 1,427 career points as a four-year WSU starter.
Not that he’s fully healed.
“Vance (Hall) grabbed me in the locker room and picked me up, and started bear-hugging me, and I said, ‘My back, my back,’ ” Duggins said with a laugh. “It felt a lot better after the win.”
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-7389 or knagel@DaytonDailyNews.com.
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