YSU Loses in Overtime, Snaps Five-Game Win Streak

The Youngstown State Penguins men’s basketball team (7-5, 2-1 Horizon) had a double-digit lead in the early going, but they ended up blowing it and suffered an 80-77 loss in overtime against the Robert Morris Colonials (9-4, 2-1 Horizon) – the defending undisputed Horizon League Champions – at the UPMC Events Center in Moon Township, PA on Wednesday night. Andrew Toole’s Colonials team is now 7-0 at home this season after snapping YSU’s five-game winning streak.

The Penguins were up by 10 at 27-17 following a Bryson Dawkins free throw, but the Colonials scored the next seven unanswered points to make it a one-possession deficit at 27-24 with 3:45 left in the first half, courtesy of back-to-back jumpers from Ryan Prather Jr. and a three from Kaleb Brown.

While RMU kept the game close with a three from Josh Hill, a three-point play from Nikolaos Chitikoudis, and a Prather layup, Carroll answered each RMU basket with a three and ended up scoring YSU’s last nine points of the first half as the Penguins took a 36-32 lead into the locker room.

Back-to-back baskets by Carroll and Dawkins opened the second half for a 40-32 YSU lead, but the Colonials went on a 13-3 run to make it a one-point deficit at 46-45 with 14:48 to go.

The Penguins waddled back by scoring six of the next points with a Carroll three and a Salaridze three-point play to go up 52-47 at the 12:18 mark, but the Colonials blew up with a 9-0 run thanks to a three from DeSean Goode and consecutive layups from Hill, Prather, and Goode. As a result, the Colonials took their first lead of the night at 56-52 halfway through the second half at the 10:07 mark.

However, Youngstown State countered with a 9-0 run of their own, with a pair of three-pointers from Dawkins and a three-point play by Carroll in between, to regain the five-point lead at 61-56 with 4:49 to go.

Salaridze’s shot made it 67-64 with 1:53 left, but Goode hit a three to tie it up at 67 all with 1:06 remaining.

A turnaround shot from Carroll put YSU up by two with 35 seconds to go before Albert Vargas knotted it back up at 69 all with a pair of free throws. Carroll then missed a potential game-winning triple, which sent the game into an extra session.

In overtime, Carroll’s free throws made it 71-69 in YSU’s favor before Goode scored five straight points with a free throw and back-to-back layups to help RMU to a 74-71 advantage with 3:20 to go. Salaridze countered with a pair of free throws and a layup of his own, which gave the Penguins the lead back at 75-74 with just 39 seconds left. Prather then hit a three-pointer before Brown split a pair of foul shots to put Robert Morris back up 78-75 with four seconds remaining.

Salaridze and Goode exchanged a pair of foul shots to make it 80-77 with two seconds to go. Then, Salaridze caught an inbound pass from Carroll, turned around, and missed a game-tying half-court heave as Robert Morris came away with the win.

YSU shot 58.1 percent (25-of-43) from the field, 41.3 percent from three-point territory, and 77.3 percent (17-of-22) from the foul line. Carroll finished with a career-high 31 points (17 in the first half) and shot 10-of-12 from the field, including 6-of-8 from downtown, with 15 points off the bench for Salaridze and 13 for Dawkins.

RMU scored 25 points off 22 YSU turnovers and won the rebounding battle 32-27. The Colonials made 42.4 percent (28-of-66) of their overall shots, 38.1 percent (8-of-21) of their threes, and 76.2 percent (16-of-21) of their free throws. Prather finished with a team-high 19 points on 8-12 shooting. Goode recorded 16 points and 12 rebounds for his fifth double-double this season. Chitikoudis finished with 10 points and 12 rebounds for his fourth double-double of the year despite shooting an abysmal 4-for-18 from the field. Out of his dozen boards, 10 of them were on the offensive end. 10 points for Hill as well, with nine from Brown, and eight each from Vargas and Ta’Zir Smith. All eight of Vargas’ points came from the foul line, and he never missed at the charity stripe.

Up next: Ethan Faulkner’s Youngstown State team will kick off a three-game homestand, starting with a matchup against USC Upstate on Saturday, December 20, at 1 p.m. at Zidian Family Arena at the Beeghly Center.

James Moon (CashApp): $JRMoon1991