By Harry Minium
NORFOLK, Va. – It was a game the Old Dominion men's basketball team appeared to have won, and perhaps should have won.
But with 1.4 seconds left, and a Chartway Arena crowd of 6,021 screaming for him to miss, Coastal Carolina's Linton Brown calmly made three free throws to lift the Chanticleers to a 67-66 victory over ODU.
Tyreek Scott-Grayson managed to get off a desperation shot at the buzzer, but it bounced off the rim to end a frustrating evening for the Monarchs.
Seconds earlier, most of the Monarchs were running off the court, thinking they had won. With the clock running down, Brown put up a three-point shot from the corner that missed, and ODU rebounded.
But as the players began to celebrate, the Monarchs realized there had been a late foul called on Scott-Grayson.
Replays showed minimal contact, and the crowd booed lustily the rest of the way. Shooting into a sea of ODU students waving hands and signs, Brown swished all three foul shots.
ODU (10-7 overall, 2-3 Sun Belt) seemingly had control of the game, holding a 12-point lead, 50-38, with nine minutes left. But then the Monarchs let off the gas and allowed the Chanticleers (8-8, 2-3) to rally.
"Tonight is a great example of if you don't finish, if you continue to give a good team opportunities, it can bite you in the rear end," ODU head coach Jeff Jones said.
"Missed free throws, not rebounding at the other end. We just gave Coastal too many chances. It never should have come down to an official's call at the end."
The Chanticleers were without their leading scorer, Jomaru Brown, who was out with an injury.
ODU was without Imo Essien, the sophomore point guard who collapsed seven minutes into Saturday's game at Georgia Southern. Essien said he felt like he could not breath when he fell to the floor.
Essien was treated by ODU trainer Jason Mitchell and watched the rest of the game with his teammates on the bench.
Jones said Essien won't play for at least two weeks as officials continue to give him a battery of tests.
In medical testing done so far, Jones said, "I haven't heard anything, that, you know, would raise a huge red flag. They want to continue monitoring him but haven't shared anything with me that said to me, 'OK, this is a problem.'
"And I take that as good news."
Essien's absence hurt ODU's depth, and forced Jenkins, who led ODU with 15 points, to play all 40 minutes at point guard.
ODU trailed much of a lackluster first half, but Chaunce Jenkins added a put-back basket, Scott-Grayson a three pointer, and Dericko Williams two foul shots to give ODU a 24-16 lead with 3:42 left in the first half.
Coastal did not lead again until Brown's final two free thows.
The Monarchs led, 65-59, with 55 seconds left after Jenkins made two free throws.
Twenty seconds later, Brown made a layup, was fouled and made the foul shot to trim the lead to three, 65-62.
The Monarchs just needed to make free throws to win, but missed three of their last four foul shots. 
"We had some guys who didn't have a great game tonight," Jones said. "That's going to happen. But they were trying."
The Monarchs practice on Friday and then head to Huntington, West Virginia to take on Marshall Saturday night. The Herd was 13-4 heading into Thursday's late game against Southern Miss.
Asked how quickly his team can recover from a loss like Thursday's, Jones said "there wasn't anything that I could say in the locker room, so I didn't even try.
"I'm not sure how well they will sleep tonight. They need to get to class tomorrow morning and then we'll practice."
Putting the loss behind them "won't be an easy thing. But if we want to be the team that we say we want to be, then we'll find a way to regroup, bounce back and get ourselves ready to play a very good Marshall team."