Cal Tech Slips By Principia in Overtime Heartbreaker

Pasadena, CA-
For just a split second, it looked like TreVaughn Goodman might be able to pull off the impossible.
    
With 0.3 seconds remaining in overtime - the minimum amount of game clock time that scientists have determined it is possible to shoot a basketball - and Principia down 74-72, the Panthers needed an inbounds play miracle.
    
As Brennan Paulson lobbed up a prayer from the baseline, Goodman soared through the air, easily floating above all 4 Cal Tech players specifically placed underneath the basket to stop him, it looked like that prayer might just be answered.
    
Goodman got a touch on the ball, desperately pushing it towards the hoop before watching it roll off the rim, so agonizingly close to what would have sent the game to double overtime and kept Principia's hopes of their 2nd win of the season alive.
    
But it didn't happen.
    
It was oh so close, but not close enough.
    
That underlying theme of the 2018-19 Principia College men's basketball season so far - close, but not enough - reared its head during a 74-72 overtime loss to Cal Tech in Pasadena, California.
    
Monday night was a painfully similar story to the one that's been written all season long. In each of the 9 consecutive losses that have marred November and early December, something different has been the deciding factor every game. There just hasn't been a game yet where everything has come together the way it has needed to.
    
In the first half of tonight's game, Micah Paulson got into an electric scoring rhythm, lighting up the gym with 8 three pointers and 25 points, highlighted by a wild, off-balance, buzzer-beating trey ball to end the half.
    
In the second half, it was Goodman's turn to go into the scoring zone, as Tre put up 19 points on 7-8 shooting, even hauling down 10 rebounds as well. The combined 62 points of Goodman and Paulson are a season high for the duo, but it just wasn't enough tonight.
    
As a team, the Panthers rebounded tonight about as well as they have all season, pulling down 43 total boards and accumulating a +13 rebounding margin, the highest of any single game this season. It wasn't enough.
  
 In the second half, Principia played the best team defense that it has all season, holding Cal Tech to just 22 points on 8-29 shooting, highlighted by a combined lockdown of star Beavers' guards Alec Andrews and Marcus Gee, the two shooting a combined 2-14 in the half. But it wasn't enough.
    
See, for as well as the Panthers were able to defend in the second half, and as effectively as they rebounded, and as well as their stars were able to score tonight, there was always something to counteract the positives. And, in the end, those counteracting negatives out-weighed what could have been game-winning positives.
    
During the 2nd half, when Principia began to lock in on defense, Cal Tech went nearly 7 full game minutes without scoring a single point. With 14:33 on the clock, Alec Andrews scored his only points of the half on a 3 pointer. The Beavers wouldn't find the bottom of the net again until Spencer Schneider hit a 3 pointer of his own with the clock reading 8:15.
    
But, as amazing as that period of lockdown defense was, Principia was only able to score 5 points of their own during that stretch. What should have been a game-changing stretch of defensive play by Principia was turned into a footnoted lament by the counteracting negative of a listless offense.
    
"We did a lot of things right tonight," senior guard Micah Paulson commented. "We were right there, but just couldn't make plays down the stretch."
    
"It's so disappointing," he continued, "there are things that we do better every game, lots of small steps forward, but it's difficult to lose a game like this."
    
As difficult a loss as this was for Principia, positives are definitely there to be taken away.
    
For as big of an issue as this was earlier in the season, the Panthers seem to have done away with their issue of getting blown out over the last 10 minutes of games. Over the first 8 games of the season, Principia suffered to a combined -66 point margin over the last 10 minutes of games. In the last two games - against Iowa Wesleyan and now Cal Tech - that number is just a combined -1.
    
Tonight's game was just the 3rd time this season that PC has won the rebounding battle, a positive going forward for a team whose tallest player stands just 6'6". The 22 total points against PC in the 2nd half is a season low for the Panthers' defense.
    
"There's a lesson to be learned in every loss," Paulson remarked, "I'm encouraged by the small steps forward that I see us taking, but we just have to keep taking those steps."
    
The Panthers are back in action tomorrow night for the 2nd and final time on this California trip against Occidental College at 7 PM (PST).