A day after Wright State squandered a 13-point lead, the Raiders responded by erasing a 13-point deficit to take the lead late in the second half Friday against Florida International. But Dennis Mavin’s 24-point effort bested Wright State as the Raiders fell, 61-59, in an overtime contest.
Wright State lost its second straight at the Marriott USC Upstate Invitational with the Raiders final game of the weekend coming tomorrow versus their host.
Mavin hit a shot with three seconds left to force overtime. The Panthers had the better of the play in overtime despite WSU having an opportunity to tie or win the game late in overtime.
“Yesterday, I felt terrible the last couple minutes, we had a lead,” WSU head coach Billy Donlon said. “Today, I thought we performed a little better late. We missed some free throws but we couldn’t get a stop.”
After FIU took a five-point lead in overtime, JT Yoho responded with a 3 to cut FIU’s lead to 61-59. On the ensuing inbound, Mavin threw the ball away and WSU guard Reggie Arceneaux took possession with 10 seconds left. With WSU needing a basket, no one seemed to want to take the final shot.
The ball ended up in Steven Davis’ hands with three seconds left as he did not get a shot off in time.
“We just had the stares, the blank stares looking at the ball,” Donlon said. “We don’t have the offensive pace we need to. We were yelling at guys to take it to the basket off the steal and it happens. It is unfortunate but it is something we’ll get better at.”
Yoho led the Raiders with 16 points and nine rebounds but only shot 27 percent from the field.
Offensively, WSU got off to a slow start as the Panthers held the Raiders to just 11 points in the first 15 minutes of the game. Yoho broke WSU’s drought from the field with five minutes before halftime to cut into FIU’s 24-11 lead.
Joe Thomasson tried to chip away at FIU’s lead as he had eight points before the half. Florida International led at halftime 31-22.
Wright State came out to start the second half on an instant 7-0 run as Michael Karena hit a pair of layups followed by a Chrishawn Hopkins 3 pointer.
The Raiders hung within a possession or two for more than 10 minutes of the second half but could not tie or take the lead. Finally, Hopkins hit a 3-pointer from the corner with 5:41 left that gave WSU a 47-46 lead.
The Raiders held the lead until the final seconds. With WSU up 51-50, Arceneaux rebounded his own 3-pointer with 20 seconds left forcing FIU to foul. Arceneaux split the free throws.
On the Panthers’ ensuing possession, Mavin hit an off-balanced layup with three seconds left to tie the game and force overtime.
The Raiders will try and regroup to win the finale of a three-game swing at USC Upstate tomorrow evening.
“We did some positive things, the result wasn’t what any of us wanted it to be, but I am proud of our guys,” Donlon said. “We got down in the first half, and after losing yesterday, they could have called it a day but they didn’t do that.”
