A 92-89 loss to Wichita State should never have gone to double overtime in Greenville on Wednesday night.

East Carolina missed opportunities to get a huge American Conference win at the end of regulation, at the close of the first overtime and in the second extra period.

Pirates coach Mike Schwartz called it one of the toughest defeats in his coaching career.

A 4-point play with 10 sec0nds left in regulation allowed the Shockers to erase a 69-65 ECU lead. There was no contact in the act of shooting on the decisive play.

The Pirates intended to foul before the shot went up. Isaiah Mbeng moved in to commit a personal on Kenyon Giles but backed off as Giles went up behind the arc.

If that was a foul, the Pirates should have had three foul shots at the end of the first half as Wichita State hacked before a heave from midcourt.

Shockers coach Paul Mills seemed to have an incredulous grin in his communication with the officials Wednesday night.

There are occasional issues when officials are in the position of making pivotal calls at the close of games. Some situations are not correctable by video review.

Officials have demanding schedules. There is a cumulative fatigue from the travel and physical effort of movement on the court.

Still, officials appear oblivious to increasing physicality in the game. Calls need to be made when there is contact that affects a shot.

The referees were not responsible when Wichita State got a score-tying 14-footer from Giles with two seconds left in the first overtime. ECU turned it over on an inbounds play from their defensive baseline and Giles was clutch again. ECU could have closed it out right there.

Bad break No. 3 came with ECU trailing, 90-89, coming out of a timeout with 15 seconds left in the second overtime. The inbounds play came to Jordan Riley, who had a tremendous effort in putting up a career high 40 points.

Riley proved human after a seemingly superhuman effort, losing the side court inbounds pass out of bounds. The Pirates had to foul and Giles hit two free throws with 14 seconds left for the final margin.

Consequence of loss

A year ago, the loss to the Shockers would not have been as devastating. All 13 teams made the American Conference tournament for the 2024-25 season.

This season, the league has restricted the tournament to the top 10 teams in the standings.

As the Pirates play at Charlotte today at noon (ESPN2), they stand 12th in the American standings with a 4-9 league mark. North Texas is currently 10th at 6-8. Rice is 11th at 5-8. Texas San Antonio is last at 1-13.

ECU has five conference games left so the Pirates have the potential to finish 9-9.

The American tournament is in Birmingham on March 11-15 after being played in Fort Worth in recent seasons.

The current format prevents a team making a run from a low seed to qualify for the NCAA Tournament as the American champion.

It can be done. N.C. State won five games in the ACC Tournament in 2024 to make the NCAA field and subsequently reached the Final Four.

Recovering

ECU can’t let disappointment from the Wichita game linger and affect their performance Saturday.

One casualty from the close encounter with the Shockers was Corey Caulker with a foot injury. The junior transfer is not likely to be available against the 49ers.

One thing that the Pirates have in their favor is their road record. Three of their four American wins have been away from home — North Texas, Florida Atlantic and Rice.

Charlotte, first time

ECU was topped at home, 73-70, by the 49ers on Jan. 18 as Dezayne Mingo came off the bench for 16 points for Charlotte.

Riley led the Pirates with 23 points.

Caulker scored 14 with six assists.

Giovanni Emejuru was below his averages with seven points and six rebounds.

Demitri Gardner had 12 points against Charlotte, which was his fifth game with the Pirates since transferring from Augusta.

ECU had just four turnovers in the first Charlotte game compared to 16 for the 49ers.

Factors that went in Charlotte’s favor were rebounding, where they had a 33-22 lead, and shooting.

The 49ers hit 26 of 48 field goals (54.2 percent) while the Pirates were 26 for 61 (42.6 percent).

Up and down

Charlotte has been on an elevator — up and down.

Saturday’s hosts followed a 4-game winning streak with their current 4-game losing streak.

The 49ers are 13-13 overall and 7-6 in the conference.

Charlotte’s present tailspin includes an 88-79 loss at home to UTSA, which ended a 17-game losing streak on Feb. 15.

Gardner’s impact

Injury losses to the ECU roster for the season have included guards Trevion LaBeau, Jayshayne Woodard and Daithi Quinn.

Now Caulker’s status and potential return are unknown.

Those voids have made the arrival of Gardner all the more valuable.

Gardner is averaging 11.3 points while hitting 50 percent of his 3-point attempts (19 for 38).

His emergence has helped take some of the defensive focus off of Riley.

Gardner said he was concerned about being accepted by his teammates when he transferred to ECU, but obviously he has fit in well.

Riley’s scoring

Riley is averaging 23.7 points per game, which leads the American and is tied for second nationally.

Riley was the sixth Pirate to score 40 points in a game on Wednesday night.

Jim Modlin was the first ECU player to accomplish the feat in a 102-57 season-opening win over Western Carolina when he scored 42 on Dec. 1, 1969.

The last Pirate to reach the 40-point plateau before Riley was Anton Gill, who scored 40 at William & Mary in an 80-73 loss on Jan. 9, 1994.

Oliver Mack holds the ECU single game scoring record with 47 against South Carolina-Aiken in an 87-80 Pirates win in Greenville on Feb. 11, 1978.