A lot went right for the men’s basketball team Wednesday night.

They had three players in double figures, one with a double-double, and senior Calvin Washington threw down a monster dunk that stopped time–literally. The vibration from the slam caused the shot clock mounted to the blackboard to become unplugged, and the game was temporarily halted while officials fixed the problem.

Still, the positives weren’t enough, as the Panther’s fell 81-80 in overtime.

Even sophomore Sterling Charles‘ three-pointer as time expired left Ferrum shy one point of taking the contest into a second OT.

A despondent Head Coach Pat Corrigan offered only one comment:

“We couldn’t hit the shots,” he said.

Indeed, the Panthers dropped a first-half shooting percentage of 47.1% to a second-half average of 37.5%–going 0-4 from three-point land and 9-13 from the charity stripe.

Moreover, two missed layups and a missed free throw in the overtime period proved to be more than the difference. Two missed free throws with :14 left in regulation also could have tied it, but senior Tahli Oden saved the game, taking the ball the length of the court and scoring on a layup with :05 left to send the contest into the extra period.

It was a game that saw 17 lead changes and 12 ties–a proverbial back-and-forth, see-saw battle that had the Panthers up two points at halftime–35-33.

At one point in the second, it looked as though Ferrum might begin a run–going up 44-36 with 17:58 remaining on an Oden free throw.

On several occasions, Bridgewater cut the lead to six, and four, and three, and five before finally eclipsing the Panthers at the 7:21 mark, 55-54.

From there, the lead changed hands four more times before knotting at 60 with 4:27 remaining in regulation.

Then Bridgewater went up two, but Ferrum tied it 62-62 with 3:18 left on an Alfredo Abel-Rivera, sophomore, jumper in the paint.

The Panthers went up two on a Jikari Johnson, junior, layup with 2:18 left, but the Eagles tied it again at 64 nine seconds later.

With 1:18 left in the second period, Bridgewater canned a free throw to go up one, but Oden put the Panthers up one 66-65 with :53 ticks left on the clock.

The Eagles hit a three-pointer with half a minute left to go up one, but Oden stormed the length of the court for a lay-up with five seconds left to tie the game and send it into OT.

The Panthers drew first blood in the extra period, with Johnson canning a three-pointer 15 seconds in. But the Eagles scored on a three of their own as well as three foul shots to go up 74-71 with 3:47 left in the bonus period.

Johnson hit a jumper in the paint, but Bridgewater answered and still led by three, 76-73 with 2:28 remaining. Then the Eagles hit two free throws to go up five with 1:01 left.

Oden knocked down another jumper with :48 left to get within three, but Bridgewater went up 79-75 on a free throw with 13 seconds on the clock.

Bryant Wall, junior, canned a lay up in the paint with three seconds left to make the score 79-77, Eagles, forcing the Panthers to foul on the inbound play. Bridgewater hit both free throws to go up four–81-77. In a last-ditch attempt, Charles tossed up the long-range three-pointer that scorched the nets, but in the end still left Ferrum down one when the buzzer sounded, 81-80.

Johnson, Wall, and Washington were the Panthers in double figures, scoring 22, 17, and 14 respectively. Wall had the double-double, also snatching 11 rebounds.

Rounding out the scoring were Oden and Abel-Rivera with nine each, junior Zavier Measmer with four, Charles with three, and junior Charles Tart with two.

The loss puts the Panthers at 14-10 on the season, 5-10 in the ODAC. The team will play its final game of the regular season at home in Swartz Gym on Saturday at 3 p.m. against Shenandoah.