51 Second Half Points Send YSU to Victory

#HLMBB Scoreboard (Jan. 24)
Youngstown State 77, UIC 64

The Youngstown State men's basketball team outscored by 15 points in the second half to beat UIC 77-64 on Saturday night at the Beeghly Center. Bobby Hain, Marcus Keene, DJ Cole and Osandai Vaughn all scored in double figures for the Guins.

In the second half, the Penguins (10-13 overall and 1-7 in the Horizon League) shot 68.2 percent from the field, including 5-of-7 from beyond the 3-point arc. The Guins helped themselves from the free-throw line as well making 16-of-19 (75.8 percent) attempts in the second.

YSU made 15 field goals in the second half after knocking down just seven in the first 20 minutes.

Hain and Keene each scored 14 points in the second half while Cole added 13 to lead the way. The trio combined for 41 of the Penguins' 51 points in the final 20 minutes.

In the second half, YSU took its first lead of the game at 29-28 on a three-point play by Hain just 16 seconds in and it never trailed the rest of the contest.  Over the next four minutes, the Penguins outscored the Flames 12-2 to push the advantage up to 41-30 with 15:48 left in the game.

The lead was as big as 12, at 44-32 and 46-34, before the Flames (5-16 and 1-5) made a pust to get back in the contest. UIC trimmed the deficit to five at 48-43 and 50-45, but each time the Guins withered the storm. After the Flames closed to within 50-45, YSU scored the next eight points to put the game out of reach.

YSU's biggest lead of the contest was 66-50 with 5:29 left after a Vaughn 3-pointer. UIC sliced the lead in half but an off-balance 3-pointer by Keene with 1:26 left ended any comeback hopes.

For the game, YSU shot 52.4 percent (22-of-42) while UIC finished at 36.2 percent (21-of-58). YSU made 25-of-33 free-throw attempts (75.8 percent) on the night.

After struggling from the field for the first 12 minutes the first half and trailing by 12, 20-8, the Penguins began to chip away at the Flames lead.

The Penguins used a 12-3 run over a five-minute span to cut the deficit to three, 23-20, with 3:32 left.  Hain and Keene began the surge with a pair of jumpers, and a pair of free throws Vaughn, a 3-pointer by Cameron Morse and a putback by Vaughn capped the Penguins' run.

After the Flames rebuilt a five-point lead, the Penguins got within one, 27-26, on another jumper by Morse with 47 seconds left.

UIC's Jason McClellan made split a pair of free throws to give the Flames a 28-26 lead at the half.

The Penguins shot 35 percent from the field and committed nine turnovers that turned into eight points for the Flames.

UIC connected on just 33 percent from the field in the first half, but outrebounded the Penguins, 17-15.