But in a gut-wrenching finish at Purdue Fort Wayne, Wright State fell, 77-75, when Damian Chong Qui received the in-bounds pass, took one step beyond half-court and made a long-distance heave at the buzzer.
Damian Chong Qui for the victory!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Mastodons win!!!! What a Senior Day!!! #FeelTheRumble #HLMBB #SCtop10 @ESPNAssignDesk pic.twitter.com/E2C9UiYusA
— Purdue Fort Wayne Mastodons Basketball (@MastodonMBB) February 19, 2023
The Raiders never led until Calvin’s bucket and rallied from a seven-point deficit with five minutes to go. They fell to 16-13 overall and 9-9 in the Horizon League.
“Life is made up of moments like this. It’s all about being able to deal with it,” coach Scott Nagy said on his post-game radio show.
“This one hurts a lot more than Friday night (an 85-68 loss at Cleveland State) —because Friday night, we didn’t even try. But tonight, we tried.”
Alex Huibregtse had 24 points, one off his highest total as a Raider, and set a career high for 3′s by going 6 of 9.
Calvin had 22 points on 7-of-13 shooting and six assists, and Brandon Noel had 12 points and 11 rebounds.
The Raiders made 11 threes — their most in two years — in 26 attempts and shot 50.9% overall. But they committed 18 turnovers.
They were out-rebounded by Cleveland State, 46-28, but the board battle with the Mastodons ended in a 34-34 tie.
Jarred Godfrey, a first-team all-league guard, had 25 points for PFW (16-13, 8-10).
“It was a struggle the entire night, but our kids just stuck with it and stuck with it when things didn’t look good and didn’t give into discouragement. For that, I’m super proud of them,” Nagy said.
“It’s very painful, there’s no question about it. If we hadn’t poured our hearts into it, it wouldn’t be painful. That’s why it hurts.”
All HL teams have two games to go, and the Raiders tumbled into a three-way tie for sixth with Robert Morris and Detroit Mercy.
Youngstown State is in first at 14-4, followed by Cleveland State at 13-5, Northern Kentucky and Milwaukee at 12-6 and Oakland at 10-8.
The top four teams receive first-round byes and a quarterfinal home game in the league tourney.
The fifth seed also avoids a first-round game but plays the fourth seed on the road.
The Raiders won the tourney last season as the fourth seed.
THURSDAY’S GAME
Wright State at Oakland, 7 p.m., ESPN+, 980
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