After Mark Alstork made one of two foul shots with 10.4 seconds left for a two-point lead, Miami had a chance to tie, but freshman guard Michael Weathers couldn’t connect on a drive in traffic. And Alstork was fouled again with 2.3 seconds left.
He missed both foul shots, but the RedHawks couldn’t get a shot off before the buzzer.
“When the game got tight, when we lost the lead, our kids didn’t panic and made good plays,” Nagy said.
But the Raiders were haunted by a poor second-half showing. They allowed 55 points on defense, while shooting 37 percent from the field.
“When we went in (the locker room), it didn’t feel like a win because of how we let them back in the game and how we played,” Nagy said. “I’m OK with that. It’s great to win and not feel OK sometimes. I want them to desperately learn to value defense way more than offense. We’re not there yet. We’re trying to out-score people, and that’s a bad recipe for consistently winning.”
Credit: DaytonDailyNews
Alstork, a 6-5 junior guard, led all players with 29 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists. He was 6-for-17 from the field and 15-for-20 from the foul line.
He came up big with the game on the line.
After Weathers scored on a goal-tended bucket at 1:31 for an 84-all tie, Alstork connected on a pair of foul shots with one minute to go.
Rod Mills missed a 3-pointer, and Alstork scored inside for a four-point lead, flashing his biceps for the crowd of 3,813 like a body-builder.
But the suspense wasn’t over. Miami’s Jake Wright hit a leaning 3-pointer to make it 88-87 with 10.4 seconds to go. The Raiders (2-0), though, managed to hang on.
“As I told the players, there’s no such thing as moral victories,” Miami coach John Cooper said. “The effort and how you have to come out, particularly on the road, was good. But we didn’t do enough down the stretch when it was right there to take advantage of it.”
He also was lamenting how his team fell into a crater in the first half.
“How many times did we miss bunnies around the basket?” he said. “You forget about them in the second half because the game is so close, but there were four or five we missed, and those come back to bite you.”
It was a stunning turnaround for the Raiders, not unlike what transpired in an 85-81 season-opening win at Southern Illinois. They shot 27 percent in the first half of that game, but hit 72 percent and tallied 54 points in the second half.
Mills and Wright had 17 points apiece to lead Miami (1-1). Weathers 14 points, five rebounds and five assists.
Wright State forward Steven Davis fouled out with 5:36 to go with 16 points and seven rebounds. Point guard Justin Mitchell chipped in 14 points and seven rebounds.
“We came out from the half a little lazy, not ready to play,” Alstork said. “When you get to the Division I level, it hurts you. We’ve got a young team with less experience, and we’re just here to get better day by day.”
“It’s always good getting a win, but our defense has got to get better,” Mitchell said.
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