The Youngstown State Penguins men’s basketball team erased a nine-point halftime deficit and outscored the Akron Zips by 15 in the second half on their way to an 84-78 exhibition victory on Wednesday night at Zidian Family Arena at Beeghly Center.
Akron had its biggest lead of the game with an 11-point margin at 32-21 with 5:38 to go late in the first half and eventually led 44-35 at the intermission, but the Penguins waddled back into it by scoring 15 of the first 23 second half points through the first 4:42 of the second stanza and made it a one-possession game at 52-50 with 15:18 to go. It begun with consecutive treys by Bryson Dawkins, followed by a Tyler Robinett putback layup, a three-pointer from Rich Rolf, another three from Robinett, and a free throw by Tae Blackshear.
The Zips regained an eight-point advantage at 58-50 with back-to-back threes from Tavari Johnson and Shammah Scott, but the Penguins would go on a quick 9-2 run thanks to consecutive longballs from Blackshear before Imanuel Zorgvol hit one of his own to cut the deficit down to just one at 60-59 with 11:27 left.
Following another three-point shot by Johnson, two more free throws by Blackshear and a driving layup from Dawkins tied the game at 63 all with a driving layup before a foul shot from Jason Nelson gave YSU their first lead of the evening at 64-63 with 7:11 remaining.
Akron regained the advantage at 68-65 lead with 5:45 remaining thanks to free throws by Amani Lyles and another trey ball by Scott, but the Penguins went on to score seven unanswered points to go up 72-68 with 4:24 left thanks to four made foul shots by Zorgvol and a three by Cam Polak. From that point forward, Ethan Faulkner’s YSU club would never relinquish the lead again.
Scott would make some free throws of his own as the Zips cut the lead down to two at 72-70, but the Penguins marched on for another 7-0 run with consecutive made shots at the charity stripe from Robinett, followed by Dawkins layup and a trio of free throws from Cris Carroll to make it 79-70 with 1:11 to go. Akron would go on to score eight of the game’s final 13 points, but the contest was already out of reach.
Blackshear led the Penguins with 19 points off the bench on 6-of-9 shooting and 4-of-7 from downtown. “Coaches telling us, reminding us our principles and where we’re supposed to be on the floor,” he stated. “On the defensive side, we dug in there and paid more attention to the defensive side of the ball and everything flowed out on offense because of the defense.”
In addition to Blackshear’s performance, Dawkins was the lone Penguin starter in double-figure scoring with 16 points of his own and shot 6-of-14 from the field.
Another player who contributed off the bench was Zorgvol, who had 13 points and three blocks while going a perfect 6-for-6 from the foul line. “It’s something I just work on every day,” he said after sitting out last season due to an injury. “Last year when I got hurt, I feel like just watching from the bench, seeing everybody just wanting me to expand my game. So I was like ‘When I come back and I’m fully healthy, I’ll just start working.’ Not saying that I didn’t have it, I just didn’t believe in it, but I knocked it out today.”
Faulkner spoke on how impressed he was by John Groce’s Akron squad, who was picked to repeat as Mid-American Conference Champions this season. “I thought a lot of positives to draw from,” he stated. “I got a lot of respect for Akron’s program. I think Coach Groce is a great coach. I think they’ve got a really, really good team this year. So to play a game this early in the year against that quality of opponent to where regardless of the outcome, it was gonna be beneficial for both teams. I know out team will get a lot out of this, and I hope theirs will, too.”
Youngstown State shot 40.63 percent from the field (13-of-32) and only 31.25 percent from downtown (5-of-16) in the first half, but they did better in the second half by making 47.83 percent of their overall shots (11-of-23) and 53.33 percent of their threes. While Akron shot an outstanding 64 percent (16-of-25) in the first half, YSU held the Zips to just 35.48 percent (11-of-31) on field-goal tries through the final 20 minutes. Also, the Penguins also forced 17 turnovers and scored 23 points off of those miscues throughout the night.
“To be honest with you, as positive as it is to win a game against a team as quality as Akron is, I think we left a lot out there,” Faulkner said regarding the tale of two halves. “I think we’ve got a lot to get better at, certainly on the defensive end of the floor. The first half, to give up 44 points, they shoot 65 percent from the field, 50 percent from three in the first half. Execution wasn’t where it needed to be. Offensively, I thought we played better in the second half, moved the ball better. Obviously when the ball goes in the basket, that helps everything, which it did in the second half. Both sides of the ball, this will certainly help the development of our team.”
Akron was led by 22 points from Johnson, who shot 7-of-11 from the field and 4-of-6 from beyond the arc. Scott, last season’s MAC Sixth Man of the Year, helped out with 18 points off the bench and shot 4-of-8 on his three-point attempts.
Up next: Youngstown State will open the 2025-26 season on the road against Atlantic Coast opponent Pittsburgh Panthers on Monday, November 3 at the Petersen Events Center for a 7:00pm tip time.
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