YSU Men’s Basketball Goes 0-2 to Start 2026

The Youngstown State men’s basketball team (8-8, 2-4 Horizon) began 2026 on thin ice with an 85-83 loss at home to Oakland on Thursday at Zidian Family Arena inside Beeghly Center. The Penguins followed with another loss at Northern Kentucky 94-79 on Sunday at Truist Arena in Highland Heights, KY.

Against Oakland, Carroll scored six of the game’s first eight points with a pair of threes to give YSU the early 6-2 edge. The ‘Guins pushed their lead to six for the second time at 10-4 before four straight points from the Golden Grizzlies made it a two-point deficit with a Tuburu Naivalurua dunk at the 15:33 mark. YSU then went on an 8-0 run with a three from Jason Nelson, a pair of free throws from Rich Rolf, and another three from Jaiden Haynes for the 18-8 lead at the 14:21 mark.

Oakland answered with the next four points to pull within 18-12, with a bucket from Isaac Garrett and free throws from Khoi Thurman, before YSU’s lead reached double-digits again at 24-14 on a layup from Rolf with just under 11 minutes remaining in the opening half. The Penguins pushed their lead to 11 for the first time at 30-19 on two charity tosses from Nelson just before the nine-minute mark. Brody Robinson then hit a step-back triple to bring head coach Greg Kampe’s crew within seven at 34-27, but back-to-back threes from Rolf and Nelson gave YSU a 40-27 lead with 6:12 left in the first half.

However, the Golden Grizzlies scored the next nine unanswered points to make it a two-possession deficit at 40-36 at the 2:48 mark with one made free throw each from Robinson and White, back-to-back layups from Garrett and Thurman, and a three from White. Nelson was then fouled by Thurman on a three-point try with little time left on the shot clock and made all three of his free throws to give YSU a 43-36 lead with 2:13 remaining, but White countered on the next possession with a triple from the right wing before a free throw from Naivalurua made it a one-possession deficit at 43-40 at halftime.

Oakland knotted up the contest for the first time at 47-all after a three-pointer from Garrett at the 17:28 mark of the second half, but Dawkins answered with a three-pointer of his own to put YSU back in front 50-47. After YSU grew their lead to 59-54 thanks to a three from Rolf, Oakland responded with a 9-0 run courtesy of a three by White, a dunk from Garrett, a pair of made foul shots from Robinson, and a layup from Naivalurua, which gave the Golden Grizzlies a 63-59 advantage.

Cam Polak hit a step-back three on the other end to bring the Penguins within one at 63-62 before Oakland regained another four-point cushion at 68-64 after a three by Warren Marshall IV. YSU tied the game up at 68-all with 8:32 left with consecutive layups from Dawkins and Carroll. Oakland pulled off the next six unanswered points to take its largest lead at 74-68 with 6:52 left before the Penguins retaliated with a Carroll three and a three-point play from Dawkins to make it 74-all.

After Naivalurua’s layup put the Golden Grizzlies ahead 76-74, back-to-back power jams from Robinett and Dawkins put YSU back up 78-76 with 3:05 remaining. YSU led by two again at 80-78 with a Dawkins layup before Oakland regained the advantage at 83-80 on White’s fifth trey-ball of the day and a pair of made free throws from Garrett with just 1:03 to go, but a three-point play from Nelson tied it up one last time, 83-all, with 43 seconds remaining in regulation.

With the score still tied, Naivalurua put Oakland ahead 85-83 on a putback with just 14 seconds left. After a timeout, Nelson missed the potential game-winning three-pointer at the buzzer to end it.

The Penguins shot 42.6 percent (29-of-68) from the field and 28.6 percent (10-of-35) from three-point distance, while converting on 75 percent (15-of-20) of their free throw tries. Youngstown State also won the rebound battle 36-32, scored 21 second-chance points off 18 offensive rebounds, and committed just seven turnovers.

Nelson finished with a near triple-double with 14 points, seven rebounds, and eight assists. Rolf also filled up the statsheet with 14 points, six boards and five dimes, while Carroll scored a baker’s dozen points of his own.

Dawkins led the Penguins with a season-high 20 points to go along with 8-of-14 shooting from the field, while also pulling down a team-high seven rebounds.

“This changed a lot,” Dawkins said after Thursday’s game. “We played really hard. Feel like we fought the whole entire game, and I can’t even identify the key pieces of where we really went wrong in this game. Other than [Garrett] having a great night for Oakland, I just feel like we played a complete team ball, held them on the glass. Turnovers is a big problem for us, and we cut those down, too. Just a tough loss.”

The Golden Grizzlies shot 61.9 percent (13-of-21) from the field in the first half and 55.3 percent (26-of-47) for the whole game while knocking down 53.3 percent (8-of-15) of their threes and 73.5 percent (25-of-34) of their free throws. Garrett led Oakland with 27 points and 14 rebounds, while White scored a career-high 22 points on 5-of-8 shooting from downtown. Naivalurua finished with 14 points and shot an efficient 5-of-6 from the field.

In hopes of snapping a two-game skid, the Penguins trailed the Norse 50-24 at halftime and were down by 28 after L.J. Wells made a shot just 15 seconds into the final stanza, but YSU scored 21 of the next 33 points and decreased the deficit to 19 at 64-45 following a three from Rolf with 11:50 remaining.

Northern Kentucky still led by 19 at 73-54 following a dunk from Tae Dozier, but Youngstown State scored the next dozen unanswered points and were only down 73-66 with 4:47 to go. It started with three free throws from Tae Blackshear, two more free throws and a three from Carroll, and ended with back-to-back buckets by Dawkins.

However, NKU head coach Darrin Horn’s squad countered with a 9-0 run with a trey from Dan Gherezgher, followed by a fastbreak layup from Ethan Elliott, and a pair of made foul shots apiece from Kael Robinson and Donovan Oday to make it 82-66 with 2:41 left in the game.

The Penguins got as close as 10 twice within a seven-second span with a three from Rolf to make it 87-77 with 58 ticks left, followed by a layup from Haynes to make it 89-79 with 51 seconds remaining, but that was as close as Faulkner’s squad would get.

YSU shot 40 percent (28-of-70) overall from the field and 53.9 percent (21-of-39) in the second half while also hitting 29.4 percent (10-of-29) of their threes and 56.5 percent (13-of-23) of their free throws. Carroll scored 26 points and made a career-high seven triples in 14 attempts, while Dawkins and Rolf had 10 points each.

NKU shot a solid 51.7 percent (30-of-58) from the field, 45 percent (9-of-20) from three-point territory and 78.1 percent (25-of-32) on free throws, while also outrebounding YSU 45-33.

Gherezgher finished with 26 points, five rebounds and five assists while shooting 7-of-14 from downtown. It’s the third time in NKU’s Division I history that a player has recorded a 25-5-5 game.

Wells finished with his fourth double-double of the season with 18 points and 11 rebounds while shooting 7-for-11 from the field. The Norse are 9-0 this season when Wells scores 10+ points on 60 percent or higher field goal attempts.

22 points off the bench for Oday, with 16 points, five rebounds, four assists and two steals coming from Robinson.

Up next for the Penguins, head coach Ethan Faulkner’s squad will return home to host the Mastodons of Purdue Fort Wayne at 7:17 Jan. 7 at Zidian Family Arena inside Beeghly Center.

James Moon (CashApp): $JRMoon1991