“He poked the ball away (from a Miami player) and dove on the floor to get it. Are you kidding me? Our team is going to respond to that. And they did,” the coach said.
“That was a big play for us. It put our team in a good spot. Those are the things he needs to do for us, and he’s completely capable of doing them.”
Calvin was held out of the starting lineup for the fifth straight game after making 65 consecutive starts, but he racked up 27 points while going 10 of 13 from the field (including 2 of 3 on 3′s) with seven assists in the 88-80 win before 1,055 fans Thursday.
The Raiders shot 63.3% in the second half and 54.8 for the night while notching their first win over a Division-I team in about a month.
They’re 7-6 overall and will begin a run of 18 straight Horizon League games Dec. 29 at Northern Kentucky.
“It felt more like our tournament in Vegas when we were just better offensively,” said Nagy, whose team went 2-1 against quality mid-major competition at the Vegas 4 tourney on Thanksgiving weekend.
“We had a good flow to us, played faster. Trey is kind of getting back to where we hoped he would be. That helps everybody.”
Brandon Noel had 11 points and seven rebounds and Tim Finke nine points — including an ally-oop dunk off a Calvin pass — and six assists.
Alex Huibregtse chipped in 11 points off the bench, and Andrew Welage had eight points and eight rebounds while going 2 of 2 on treys.
“I thought we got great contributions from Alex and Andrew again. Andrew is really starting to play well, and I think Alex is going to start shooting the ball like he’s capable,” Nagy said.
The Raiders took a 76-54 lead on a jumper by Amari Davis with 6:47 to go, but the RedHawks (5-7) didn’t go quietly.
Mekhi Lairy, a 5-foot-8 guard, scored 32 points. He was 12 of 15 from the field and 6 of 8 on 3′s.
He led a rally that cut the gap to four with 1:25 to go.
“We weren’t in a dead panic, but at that point, we were just going to try to keep the ball in Trey’s hands as much as possible,” Nagy said.
The Raiders bled the clock until Calvin made a jumper with 54 seconds left, ending the drama.
Nagy created room for the 6-1 guard to operate throughout the night by having him come off screens.
“A lot of times, I think we’re the only ones who struggles with ball screens, but everybody struggles with them,” Nagy said.
“When you’ve got a big kid like they do in (6-8, 305-pound Anderson) Mirambeaux, it just becomes difficult. Sometimes, they tried to switch it and couldn’t guard him.
“Trey was in a good spot. If he’ll stay there, we’ll be fine.”
THURSDAY’S GAME
Wright State at Northern Kentucky, 7 p.m., ESPN+, 980
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