Grant Basile scored on a put-back with 5.8 seconds left for a two-point lead. And after a timeout, Trey Calvin made a steal and passed to a streaking Tanner Holden for a dunk to seal the nationally televised win.
“That’s about as excited as I get. I don’t get too excited, let’s face it,” a jubilant coach Scott Nagy said on his post-game radio show.
“When you coach this long, you have great victories, and this is one of them for sure.’
Basile had 26 points on 12-of-17 shooting, while Holden scored 17.
Calvin, who struggled from the field most of the night, still finished with 10 points, six assists and six rebounds. And he knocked down a 3 at 2:51 for a 74-72 lead.
Andrew Welage had 10 points off the bench, one short of his career high.
The Raiders had a whopping 38-21 rebounding edge, including 17 on the offensive end. Basile, Holden and Tim Finke tied for the team lead with seven each.
“I’m so proud of the guys,” Nagy said. “It was a great environment. They were juiced, and we knew they’d be ready for us.”
The Grizzlies led by as many as 12 in the second half and took a 69-58 lead on a 3 by Jamal Cain with 6:49 to go.
But the Raiders ripped off 11 points in a row, tying the game at 69-all on Holden’s free throw after Oakland’s Trey Townsend was called for a technical foul at 4:22.
Tied with just under two minutes to go, neither team could connect.
The 6-foot-7 Cain, who had 18 points and nine rebounds, missed a driving dunk with 43 seconds left that would have given the Grizzlies the lead.
Keaton Norris missed a 3, but Calvin batted the rebound to Finke in the backcourt. And Wright State called timeout with 22.3 seconds left.
Nagy put the ball in the hands of Calvin, who was tripped as he drove, but let a shot go as he was falling. And Basile out-fought others and tallied perhaps the biggest bucket of the season.
All league contenders have three games left, and the regular-season title and seeding for the conference tourney will be decided by winning percentage.
The Raiders are 16-12 overall and 13-6 (.684 winning percentage) in the league, just behind the Grizzlies, who fell to 18-9, 11-5 (.688).
Cleveland State is in first at 14-4 (.778) and finishes the season at Oakland.
Purdue Fort Wayne is 12-6 (.667), and Northern Kentucky and Youngstown State are 11-7 (.611).
Detroit Mercy is 8-6 (.571), while the other five league teams having losing records and are eliminated from the race.
“We talked about this after the Northern Kentucky game Sunday — we were never in that game, but our kids didn’t quit at the end. I said that could come back to help us somewhere down the road. And I think it did help us here,” Nagy said.
SUNDAY’S GAME
Wright State at Detroit Mercy, 1 p.m., ESPN+, 980
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