The University mens basketball team secured another overtime win on Tuesday against Kent State with a game sealing layup by sophomore forward Demajeo Wiggins, with 1.3 seconds remaining in the contest.
The win is the second overtime victory in a row for the team, since they defeated Toledo in double overtime just three days prior.
In the 14 remaining seconds of overtime, the Golden Flashes made a layup to increase their lead 83-79 over the Falcons. On the very next play, freshman guard Rodrick Caldwell hit a deep straight ahead three over a Kent State defender to close the gap to one with 7.2 seconds left in the overtime. Kent State then tried to inbound the ball but turned it over against the Bowling Green defense.
“[Lillard] did a great job of pressuring him. That’s what we wanted to do. We have a package at the end of the game on how we want to pressure, and we executed it to perfection,” head coach Michael Huger said. “That was probably the best execution job that we did on the defensive end, and it was a tough pass to make. He turned the ball over, and we had a chance.”
The next play was a draw up for Caldwell, who drove to the basket for a potential game winning layup. The 5’10” guard threw up a circus shot that didn’t get close to the rim, but Wiggins was there to take the ball and get the tip-in layup between two Golden Flash defenders for the 84-83 Falcon win.
“I told Rod to drive it, drive it. We didn’t have any timeouts left,” Huger said. “And I told Demajeo and those guys to rebound, and see if we could get it. And he got it. That was big, that was big.”
The 5-0 game winning run by the team garnered national attention and was featured on the evening segment of ESPN’s SportsCenter.
This win pushes the Falcon win streak to three, all against Mid-American Conference teams. It is the first time since Huger has joined the team that they have won three in a row against conference opponents.
This is also only the second time in program history that the Falcons have won back to back games in overtime. The Falcons are now 11-13 overall and 5-6 in the MAC. The team is now one game away from taking the second overall spot in the conference.
The team will return home on Saturday at noon to go up against MAC opponent Buffalo.
