Wright State basketball: Raiders fall in triple overtime despite Calvin’s 44 points

Credit: Timothy D. Easley

Credit: Timothy D. Easley

Wright State’s Trey Calvin scored 44 points — one short of the all-time program record — and he made a string of mammoth baskets to keep his team alive.

But despite the remarkable performance, he couldn’t prevent the Raiders from losing a game they almost certainly needed to stay in the Horizon League race. They fell to Youngstown State on the road, 91-89, in triple overtime Thursday.

Calvin played 53 minutes and went 18 of 38 from the field, 4 of 7 on 3′s and 4 of 6 on free throws.

Bill Edwards scored 45 against Morehead State on Dec. 8, 1992, but probably no one in Raider history could match what Calvin did in the clutch-point department.

He scored five answered points in the final 19 seconds of regulation, including a layup with 10.7 ticks left to make it 60-all.

The Penguins went to star guard Dwayne Cohill, but Brandon Noel blocked the shot, forcing overtime.

Calvin tied it at 68-all on a layup with 56 seconds left in the first OT, and neither team could score the rest of the way.

He scored all 11 of the Raiders’ points in the second OT, including a tying 3 with 2.7 seconds to go.

And he put the squad on his shoulders again in the deciding third extra session.

He converted a three-point play with 2:08 to go to tie it at 85-85.

He then scored four points in the final minute, including a bucket with six seconds left for a tie game.

But Cohill, who had 43 points in the Penguins’ 88-77 win the first meeting at the Nutter Center, made a driving layup at the buzzer for the game-winning points.

“I just told the players, ‘There’s just one question we have to answer: Can we get by this and get ready to play another game (at Robert Morris on Saturday),” coach Scott Nagy said on his post-game radio show.

“We don’t need to watch any film on this. Everyone in there is hurting. They gave it everything they had. But we can’t let this one affect that one.”

Noel had nine points and 15 rebounds for the Raiders, who fell to 13-11 overall and 6-7 in the league.

Tim Finke had five points and 10 rebounds, and A.J. Braun chipped in 12 points off the bench.

Adrian Nelson had 27 points and 15 rebounds to lead YSU, which improved to 18-6 overall and 10-3 in the league. They share first place with Northern Kentucky and Milwaukee, which posted victories Thursday.

Cohill was held to 11 points on 2-of-11 shooting in regulation, but the Dayton transfer finished with 19 points, going only 4 of 17 from the field but 10 of 10 on foul shots.

The Penguins were fourth in the nation in 3-point shooting at 40%, but they went only 6 of 31 against the Raiders.

Wright State went 9 of 22.

“We hurt ourselves by not winning those early homes games,” said Nagy, whose team also lost to visiting Robert Morris in December. “Losing a game like this just makes it worse.

“That’s just the way it is. We love those guys, and they’re giving us everything they have. And that’s all we can ask as coaches.”

SATURDAY’S GAME

Wright State at Robert Morris, 7 p.m., ESP:N+, 980

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