MILLERSVILLE, Pa. - Friday night's overtime thriller between Millersville and undefeated California (Pa.) had all the look and feel of a significant postseason match-up, but the Marauders walked away from the 89-87 loss thinking only of missed opportunities. 

The Marauders (4-2, 0-1 PSAC) had the PSAC West preseason favorite Vulcans (5-0, 1-0 PSAC) on the ropes in regulation, leading by four with just over three minutes remaining, but empty possessions down the stretch and key missed free throws helped the Vulcans escape with their fifth road win of the season. 

"There's about six plays in the last five minutes and a couple in overtime that we have to get better with." said Millersville head coach Casey Stitzel. "For being returners, we aren't playing hard enough or smart enough, and when you play good teams like that, they'll make you pay for it."

Make no mistake, Cal U is a very good team. The Vulcans entered the game ranked in the top two in the PSAC in shooting, 3-point shooting, scoring defense, field goal percentage defense, and 3-point field goal percentage defense. Millersville was limited to 35.1% shooting but offset it with a season-high seven 3-pointers and 28-of-36 shooting from the line--its best performance of the season. Day Waters led the Marauders with a career-high 22 points and nine rebounds before fouling out early in overtime, and after riding the bench in foul trouble early, Jaden Faulkner scored all 22 of his points in the second half and overtime. But the Vulcans countered with 27 points from the PSAC's No. 2 scorer K.J. McClurg and 13 points and 12 boards from Jermaine Hall Jr., while connecting on 47% shooting 

The deciding factor was crunch-time execution, and that's where Millersville faltered. J.D. Gross' put-back with 3:18 to play in the second half put the Marauders up 74-70. Millersville still held a two-point lead as the clock crept under a minute but had missed four straight shots and turned the ball over once in the preceding offensive possessions. After the turnover, Cal U freed up marksman McClurg out of a timeout, and he buried a 3-pointer for lead. Faulkner answered with a bucket in traffic with 20 seconds left. Cal U then put Zyan Collins on the attack, and he drew a foul with nine seconds left. He missed the first but made the second, knotting the game at 76. With plenty of time on the clock, Millersville hoped to get Faulkner on a drive. Cal U took away that option, and Millersville failed to counter, getting only a deep heave from Jahme Ested instead with plenty of time on the clock. Waters' fade-away desperation jumper off the offensive rebound missed at the buzzer. 

"We were trying to get Jaden in a flat ball screen, and they denied him at first," said Stitzel. "What we wanted was for Jahme to get (Jaden) the ball or call a timeout. At worst, we want him to go downhill. That result was not what we wanted."

Cal U scored the first four points of overtime, putting Millersville in catch-up mode for nearly the full five minutes. The Marauders made just one field goal the entire extra session (a Faulkner 3-pointer with 3:44 to go). They shot 8-of-10 from the line, and Faulkner's two with 26 seconds left pulled the Marauders with one at 86-85. 

Out of a timeout, Millersville looked for a quick trap and a steal and did not want to take a foul, but J.D. Gross was whistled for a reach, and Donald Whitehead Jr. sank both of his attempts to put Cal U right back up three points. Millersville had made its first six free throws over overtime, but Dade missed the second of a two-shot foul, keeping Millersville down two. Millersville, however, had one more chance. With 13 seconds left, Hall fired a pass down court, hoping to break the press with a touchdown toss to Collins. The pass was long and intercepted by Dylin Borden. The Vulcans did not take the chance of giving Millersville a chance to win or tie with no time left, and instead took an off-the-ball foul on Faulkner. Faulkner was short on the first and made the second for a one-point deficit. Millersville, however, was slow to foul on the initial in-bounds pass and allowed three additional seconds to tick away. D.J. Slaughter made his first try and missed the second on purpose as Millersville had no timeouts left, and Ested's half-court launch missed wide. 

"We are not that far off," said Stitzel. "I just didn't expect some of these mistakes and effort issues to be here. Everyone who got in that game has been a game for first place in the PSAC (East) or NCAA Tournament game, and everyone is making elementary mistakes we didn't expect. We have to tighten up. We are not far from being a really good team, but if we want to be a really good team in this league, those are the things we need to do better."

INSIDE THE BOX SCORE

• Cal U led by as many as eight (56-48) in the second half before Millersville charged back. Millersville rallied to take the lead at 70-58 with a 22-12 run, hitting 3-of-3 3-pointers and getting two from Ested in that stretch. 
• Waters played 37 minutes and turned in a plus-four plus/minus ratio while seven of the other eight Marauders were in the negative. 
• Drew Stover contributed 10 points. Ested tallied seven rebounds and a team-high four assists. Dade scored 13 points.

GAME NOTES

• Seven of the last nine games between Millersville and Cal U have been decided by single digits and three of those games have gone into overtime--including the last two games played in Pucillo Gymnasium. Cal U won both of those OT games. 

UP NEXT

• Millersville has a quick turnaround, facing a Slippery Rock team that lost by two at West Chester on Friday night, Saturday at 3 p.m.