MILLERSVILLE, Pa. - Playing their fifth game in 10 days caught up to the Millersville Marauders Tuesday evening. A dramatic 3-pointer from Aiden Gair sent the game into overtime, but too many turnovers and empty possessions cost the Marauders in a 79-76 loss to Dominican. 

The Marauders (5-3) committed 29 turnovers--the most by a Millersville team since Jan. 10, 2015. Six of them were committed during the five-minute overtime period and four came in the final 57 seconds as Millersville had four chances to tie the game or take the lead. Three of Millersville's starters had seven each. Dominican managed 24 points off those turnovers. 

"Our turnovers were all self-inflicted," said Millersville head coach Casey Stitzel. "I'll be honest. I've been doing this a long time, and I have no idea how to fix it. It's been an issue even when we win big. It's absolutely killing us right now. It has been hard to practice and get in a rhythm because we are beat up...But at the end of the day, it's guys dribbling it off their foot, dropping the ball out of bounds, throwing it away on outlet passes. From a coach's perspective, it was tough to watch. The turnovers are just so careless right now."

In a final disastrous sequence, with Millersville trailing by two, the Marauders lost the ball on a drive with 10 seconds left, and committed a foul, giving Joshuel White to the line. White made the first of a one-and-one but missed the second, giving the Marauders a chance to tie with a 3-pointer. But off the miss, Millersville immediately threw the ball away. Dominican also traveled on the steal, giving Millersville possession in the back court with five seconds remaining. The Marauders couldn't get off a shot as Key'Sean Maynard stripped the ball away from the ball-handler as time expired. 

With all the turnovers, Millersville took just three shots in overtime. The Marauders out-shot Dominican 51.7% to 44.9% but lost the rebounding battle by nine, made just 13 of 22 free throws, and shot 3 of 15 from 3-point range. 

"If we turned it over just 20 times, we probably would have won by eight to 10 points in regulation," said Stitzel. "We just beat ourselves." 

The see-saw game featured 10 lead changes and 13 ties, but Millersville appeared to be pulling away mid-way through the second half with a 15-3 run that included 11 from Montell Cooper. An alley-oop dunk from Cooper to Stover put the Marauders up 58-49 with 9:15 to play, but the Marauders scored just six points a six-minute stretch and fell behind by 69-66 on a Jaden Honis hook shot with 43 seconds to play. Drew Stover missed a game-tying 3-pointer, but the ball went out of bounds off of Dominican. Out of a Millersville timeout, the Marauders nearly turned it over, but Stover picked up a loose ball at the foul line and dished it to Gair at the top of the key. Gair took one dribble and hit one of Millersville's three 3-pointers. Aamir Hurst preserved the tie with a blocked shot on Dominican's buzzer-beating attempt. 

Hurst dropped in an acrobatic reverse layup on the first possession of overtime, but Emmanuel Smith scored seven consecutive points for Dominican. The Marauders never again managed to tie the game or take the lead back. 

Smith finished with 30 points, four steals, and three blocked shots. Honis scored 22 for the Chargers. 

Saraj Ali led Millersville with a season-high 22 points and 10 rebounds, completing his third double-double. Stover scored 23, and Cooper added 19. 

It was the fifth time in eight games that Millersville played without a starter in the lineup, and they fell to 1-3 without Jahme Ested. All three of the Marauders losses have come by single digits to teams that won at least 19 games last season. 

"At the end of the day we are making way too many mistakes," said Stitzel. "I have to figure out how to fix it. The first thing is to get some rest. This stretch has been really tough. Hopefully in the long run it will help us and this experience and failure will propel us to playing really well in January and February. 

UP NEXT
Millersville is off until back-to-back home games on Dec. 6 against Seton Hill and Dec. 7 against Pitt-Johnstown.