Cam Polak scored a season-high 26 points and made seven three-pointers in 14 attempts to lead the Youngstown State men’s basketball team (13-13, 6-9 Horizon) to a big time 86-82 road win over the second-place Oakland Golden Grizzlies (14-12, 10-5 Horizon) on Thursday night at the OU Credit Union O’Rena in Rochester, MI.
Bryson Dawkins scored 23 points on 10-of-15 shooting from the field and also pulled down nine rebounds, while Cris Carroll recorded a double-double of 19 points and 10 rebounds.
The Penguins, who shot 34.3 percent from three-point range (12-of-35) and outrebounded Oakland 36-26, were perfect from the free-throw line, hitting all 18 shots from the stripe and also made 45.9 percent (28-of-61) of their overall shots.
Michael Hogue led Greg Kampe’s Golden Grizzlies with 21 points, 17 for Brett White, 16 for Brody Robinson and 15 for Tuburu Naivalurua. The Golden Grizzlies shot 53.4 percent (31-of-58) from the field, 40 percent (10-of-25) from three-point territory and 66.7 percent (10-of-15) from the foul line.
Polak, who made four triples in the first half, helped turn a six-point deficit at 19-13 into a seven-point lead at 29-22 with 7:14 to go in the first stanza after YSU’s 16-3 run that lasted 4:06. Jason Nelson began the run with a three before two free throws from Carroll brought YSU within one at 19-18.
Polak buried another bomb to give YSU a 21-19 lead. After the Golden Grizzlies’ Warren Marshall IV answered with three of his own, Polak retaliated with his fourth triple of the half to help Ethan Faulkner’s Penguins get the lead back with a 24-22 advantage at the 8:36 mark. Polak then nailed a pair of free throws before Carroll connected on a three-pointer of his own to increase the Penguins’ lead to seven at 29-22.
Oakland fought back with an 8-2 run, led by a pair of threes from White, to cut the deficit down to one at 31-30 with 5:30 to go. But the Penguins responded with an 11-3 run of their own that was highlighted by dunks by Dawkins and Imanuel Zorgvol, a layup and two foul shots from Carroll and a three-pointer by Dawkins to put the Penguins back up by eight at 42-34 with just a minute and a half left before halftime.
Robinson hit a triple right before the first-half buzzer to cap off Oakland’s 5-2 run as it trailed 44-39 at intermission.
A three-point play by Polak extended YSU’s lead to seven points at 53-46 with 17:01 to go, but the Golden Grizzlies went on a 10-2 run and recaptured the 56-55 advantage with 15:02 left in the game. It started with threes from White and Robinson, followed by a Naivalurua layup and a dunk from Houge.
After a Carroll three, Houge made a layup to tie it up at 58. But YSU scored the next six points courtesy of Vlad Salaridze’s layup and back-to-back dunks by Dawkins to increase the Penguins’ lead to 64-58 at the 12:39 mark.
White buried a triple at the 8:35 mark to cap off the Golden Grizzlies’ 9-3 run and bring them within one at 68-67, but Polak and Salaridze answered with threes of their own in YSU’s 10-4 stretch to push the lead back up to seven at 78-71 with 4:26 left.
Following two Carroll free throws that extended the Penguins’ lead to 84-79, Robinson was fouled on a three-point try and converted all three foul shots to make it a one-possession deficit at 84-82 with nine seconds left. However, Carroll put the game on ice with two free throws of his own with seven seconds left on the clock.
Youngstown State will visit Detroit Mercy on Sunday for a 1 p.m. tip-off at Calihan Hall in Detroit.
Like James Moon’s work? Support his work via CashApp: $JRMoon91
Enjoyed this article? Help keep HoriZone Roundtable going.
👉 Donate here: https://horizoneroundtable.com/donate
👉 Join us on Patreon: https://patreon.com/horizoneroundtable
Subscribe to our emails, and get our latest posts in your inbox, plus a weekly digest of everything we've published!
