Excerpt from the Dayton Daily News
Grant Basile sat in stunned silence, shoes removed, on the Wright State bench after a season-ending loss to Milwaukee in the Horizon League quarterfinals last year.
Though everyone else had left the floor, Basile spent more than 30 minutes in solitude while trying to come to grips with how the Raiders could squander a 24-point lead with 6:26 to go. And if he’d stayed much longer, the Nutter Center clean-up crew might have asked him for his chair.
“That was tough to lose a game like that,” he said. “We had a lot of great guys, and I loved my teammates. It was just tough taking it all in.
“You only get so many games, and that stung — losing a game we dominated pretty much the entire way, other than the last six minutes.”
Basile had 35 points and 14 rebounds, but great performances have a way of getting lost in defeat, especially one as unexpected as the 94-92 setback in OT.
The only good that seemingly could come from it is providing additional fuel for the Raiders as they start the league tourney with a quarterfinal matchup against visiting Oakland at 7 p.m. Thursday.
But as Basile he put it, “If you need more fuel than a chance to go to the NCAA tournament, then basketball isn’t the right sport for you.”
