Wright State built a seven-point halftime lead and quickly pushed it to nine. But it didn’t score again for six-plus minutes, allowing the Herd to draw even.
After breaking free again to a five-point bulge with 5:36 left, the Raiders gave up an 8-0 spurt over the next three minutes to fall behind, 66-63.
“Those runs — before you get to the last few possessions — that’s usually where my mind goes as a coach,” Sargent said.
“When you’re playing a good team, you expect that. You’re trying constantly to make sure it’s not a 10-point run. You want to shut it off quickly.”
After Wright State’s Sam Alutumu made a nervy 3 with 54 seconds left for a 71-70 lead, Marshall hit a trey, forced a turnover and made two foul shots to take control.
The Raiders fell to 5-6 overall and 0-3 in games decided by four points or fewer.
They host 10-0 Miami, which has matched its best start in school history, at 7 p.m. Tuesday.
“As we know better than anybody, when you’re losing those one-possession games, it just comes down to those (key) plays,” Sargent said.
“I feel like we’re making more of them, but we just can’t make the one that really pushes us over the edge.”
The Raiders, led by feisty freshman Michael Cooper’s 22 points, had just five turnovers, their lowest amount since facing Green Bay two years ago.
But Sargent said: “We took care of the ball. But we had some costly — they weren’t turnovers, but blocks that ended up in run-outs.”
Marshall had a beefy 11 blocks thanks to a considerable height advantage — 7-4 center Matt Van Komen had six points, 11 rebounds and seven blocks and 6-10 forward Wyatt Fricks had 19 points and three blocks.
Those transition points revved up an already boisterous crowd of 3,755.
“You’d like it not to happen. But playing a good team coming off a great win (beating Western Kentucky, 77-61) with a great home crowd — all those things — you can bank on it happening,” Sargent said.
“We were scrapping for the win. And more than anything else as a coach, you just want to see that fight and resilience. We just have to have the killer instant to not let that happen.”
Next game
Who: Miami at Wright State
When: 7 p.m. Tuesday
Streaming: ESPN+
Radio: 1410-AM, 101.5-FM
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