The Youngstown State men’s basketball team (15-14, 8-10 Horizon) built a 20-point halftime lead and never trailed in its 64-58 Senior Day win over the Northern Kentucky Norse (17-12, 9-9 Horizon) on Sunday afternoon at Zidian Family Arena at Beeghly Center, marking the 10th home win of the season for YSU.
YSU shot 42 percent (21-of-50) from the field, 25 percent (5-of-20) from beyond the arc and 65.4 percent (17-of-25) at the foul line.
Bryson Dawkins led all scorers with a game-high 22 points and made nine shots in 12 attempts, as he recorded his fifth 20-point game of the season.
“Knowing what they did to us last game when we played [Northern Kentucky] at their place, it was a bad loss,” Dawkins said. “That was probably the only team that we felt like we actually lost to. So we already got that edge on our shoulders, then it’s senior night. People refuse to lose on senior night.”
Cris Carroll put up his third double-double of the season with 15 points and 10 rebounds while shooting 10-of-12 at the foul line, while Imanuel Zorgvol scored seven points with nine rebounds and four blocks. Tae Blackshear also scored seven points.
“It just comes down to us being connected on the floor,” Carroll said. “Just overly communicating and being aggressive on defense.”
Darrin Horn’s NKU team made just 29.4 percent (20-of-68) of their shots, 25.8 percent (8-of-31) on threes and 55.6 percent (10-of-18) on free throws while outrebounding Youngstown State 43-40. Donovan Oday led the Norse with 18 points, but shot 4-of-15 from beyond the arc. Kael Robinson added 13 points and seven rebounds off the bench, while Tae Dozier was a field goal shy of a double-double with eight points and a game-high 11 rebounds.
Both teams also committed 18 turnovers on the day.
The Penguins scored the first five points of the day after a Jason Nelson three-pointer and a Dawkins layup before the Norse scored four straight on buckets from Oday and Ethan Elliott. Then YSU put up 12 unanswered points on layups from Cam Polak, Dawkins and Carroll, followed by back-to-back three-balls from Blackshear and Polak at the 11:54 mark.
The Norse cut the Penguins’ advantage to 10 after Dozier, Dawkins and Oday traded threes before Dawkins and Elliott traded buckets to make it 22-12 at the 5:52 mark. But the Penguins went on a 13-3 run, including eight unanswered points, to close out the first 20 minutes with a 35-15 lead at intermission. Those eight straight points included back-to-back buckets from Dawkins and Zorgvol, followed by Carroll’s steal leading to a three-pointer at the other end, and a free throw made from Carroll to give YSU a 21-point advantage at 34-13 with 50 seconds left.
After the game, head coach Ethan Faulkner said YSU’s first half performance was its best defense effort of the season.
“It was execution of the game plan, rebounding the basketball at a high level. We had a 26-17 rebounding advantage at halftime. Again, the growth for our team is to continue to understand why you’re having success when you have it,” Faulkner said “We didn’t have the same urgency on the backboard in the second half. [Northern Kentucky] still shoot 36 percent from the field in the second half, and they get to 43 because we can’t rebound the basketball in the second half. So we gotta continue to be better in that area.”
The Norse scored 11 of the first 13 points of the second half, starting with a three-point play from Dozier and ending with back-to-back three-balls from Robinson and Oday to get within 11 before Dawkins answered with a basket to push YSU’s lead back to 13 at 39-26 with 15:56 to go.
The Norse twice got within 10, at 39-29 and 43-33, by scoring seven of the next 11 points, which started with three made free throws from Robinson and ended with four straight points from Dan Gherezgher. But a Zorgvol dunk and a Rich Rolf layup increased the Penguins’ lead to 14 at 47-33 with 11:56 remaining.
Northern Kentucky went on a 12-2 run over the next 5:41 to make it a two-possession deficit at 51-45 at the 6:15 mark, with Oday scoring 10 points by himself in that span. The Norse got close, within just one possession at 60-57 following a big-time three from Robinson with 35 seconds remaining, but Carroll made four straight free throws within the last 28 seconds to put the cream cheese on the bagel.
Youngstown State is back in action when it visits Milwaukee on Wednesday night for an 8 p.m. Eastern Time tipoff at UWM Panther Arena.
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