Correspondent photo / Robert Hayes Youngstown State's Dwayne Cohill (5) and John Lovelace Jr. (10) celebrate after YSU's 91-89 triple overtime win over Wright State.

YOUNGSTOWN — Dwayne Cohill said he wasn’t playing another overtime.

After already battling through two extra periods against Wright State, the Youngstown State guard was hunting for the finishing blow.

With just over 5 seconds remaining, he came off a pick and took the inbound on the run and went coast-to-coast, sinking the game-winning layup at the buzzer to lift the Penguins over the visiting Raiders, 91-89, in triple overtime. The game featured nine lead changes and 16 ties.

“I told everybody when Coach (Jerrod Calhoun) called the huddle I’m not going to another overtime,” Cohill said. “I’m cool. We’ve been playing 55 minutes, and we have another one on Saturday, so let me (take the ball). I’m going to finish it. I’m going to get around the rim and make it or do whatever I got to do. So I got to the rim and finished it.”

Wright State (13-11, 6-7 Horizon League) initially tried trapping Cohill in the backcourt along the sideline, but the nimble guard dribbled out of it before accelerating around midcourt and driving to the basket, where he was contested but had a solid look from the left side of the paint. His shot made its way down the net as the buzzer sounded.

“We got that play from Steve Pikiell at Rutgers. (YSU assistant coach) Ben (Asher) got that from his boss. We call that grand slam, where we send two deep, set the screen and try to catch it on the run,” Calhoun explained. “With four or five seconds, it’s a hard play to guard. I’m really happy we went to it, and really happy Dwayne finished. This team is just resilient.”

YSU (18-6, 10-3 Horizon League) nearly had it won a few times before that, if not for Wright State guard Trey Calvin. The Raiders’ star hit game-tying shots in regulation as well as the first and second overtime, and finished the night with a game-high 44 points. He had 17 by the under-8 timeout in the first half, then didn’t score again until 13:55 was left in the second half. From then on, however, he was virtually unstoppable.

“He’s a hell of a player, and we knew he was going to make tough shots,” YSU forward Adrian Nelson said. “So we just had to make sure that whoever was guarding him to make sure to sit down and guard. Of course, he had (44) points, but we got the job done.”

Nelson was a big part in that. The forward tied career highs in points (27) and rebounds (15) and set a career high in steals (6). Fellow forward Malek Green added 24 points and 12 rebounds, while Brandon Rush (15 points) and Cohill (19 points, 8 assists) also scored in double figures.

Correspondent photo / Robert Hayes
Youngstown State forward Adrian Nelson finishes a dunk during the first half of YSU’s 91-89 win over Wright State in triple overtime.

Nelson also was tasked with WSU’s young forward, Brandon Noel, and kept him to nine points and 15 rebounds.

“They helped give us some energy,” Cohill said of Green and Nelson, noting the pair often hit shots at critical moments. “… They gave us a little pop because we weren’t hitting shots at first, and then I think we kind of fed off of them. Then in the second half, they got it going inside again, so why shy away from it? If it’s working, you aren’t going to fix it if it isn’t broken.”

Indeed, YSU had its share of troubles. The Penguins went just 6-of-31 from deep, and half of those were made by Nelson. There also were early turnovers, a rough stretch of free throws that had YSU off to a 6-of-13 start from the line and the trouble getting Calvin under control.

Still, the Penguins managed to find a way for their third consecutive victory and just the program’s second-ever triple overtime win. The last triple OT win was a 74-72 win over Akron on Feb. 4, 1984, per the YSU record book.

Cohill said some of this season’s narrow losses back in December helped YSU to be prepared this time around. The Penguins fell in similar games to Northern Kentucky and Ohio before the new year.

“We’re experienced. We’ve all been through some kind of adversity in college games, so it’s not our first time going around,” he said. “Early in the season, we took some (losses) in close games … so just taking what happened to us at the beginning of the season and learning, and then building our habits in practice. That’s all we really rely on, because we know at the end of the day, teams are going to scout and everything, so just rely on your habits.”

“We were 6-of-31 (from three) — 19 percent — and found a way to win, and this is one of the best shooting teams in the country,” Calhoun added. “That’s a testament to our grit, our togetherness and just making a few plays.”

YSU, which now sits in a three-way tie for first in the Horizon League following Cleveland State’s loss to Detroit Mercy, hosts fellow first-place team Northern Kentucky on Saturday.

jwhetzel@tribtoday.com