Men's Basketball Scoreboard (Dec. 2)
Youngstown State 89, Robert Morris 81
Evansville 86, Wright State 78
Grand Canyon 66, UIC 61
Youngstown State 89, Robert Morris 81
The YSU men's basketball team outscored Robert Morris 14-6 in the final two-and-a-half minutes to pull out a hard fought 89-81 win over the Colonials on Tuesday night at the Sewall Center.
The Penguins (5-4) picked up their first road win of the season and first at Robert Morris since January 2001 by scoring a season best in points, knocking down a season-high 10 3-pointers and holding a 37-29 edge in rebounds.
The contest was tied at 75 with 2:34 remaining when Shawn Amiker knocked down a pair of free throws. From that point, YSU never trailed again en route to the win. That was the sixth and final tie of the evening.
RMU's Stephan Bennett missed a shot from just inside the 3-point line and after a scramble Marcus Keene corralled the long rebound.
With 1:41 left, on its next possession, Keene came off a Bobby Hain screen and drained a 3-pointer to push the Penguin lead up to 80-75.
Keene came up big on the next defensive possession as Lucky Jones could not connect on a long 3-pointer and after RMU grabbed the rebound, Keene stole the ball and was fouled. With 1:20 left he calmly went to the line and sank the pair to push the lead to 82-75.
A deep three by RMU's Rodney Pryor slashed the Guin lead down to 82-78 but Hain knocked down a pair of free throws with 1:06 to make the contest 84-78. After Kavon Stewart missed an open layup down the lane, Keene made two free throws with 52.1 seconds left to make the advantage YSU 86-76 and the Guins were able to put the game away.
Hain and Keene each scored 24 points in the win. Hain was 10-of-13 from the field and 4-4 of the line while also grabbing 10 rebounds. Keene was 7-of-14, including 5-of-9 from beyond the 3-point arc. He was 5-of-7 from the free-throw line as the Penguins converted 13-of-17 for the contest from the charity stripe.
Overall YSU had five players score in double figures as Amiker added 12, Shaun Stewart had 11 and Jalon Plummer finished with 10 to join Hain and Keene.
In the game, YSU was 33-of-61 from the field (54.1 percent) while RMU was 31-of-61 (50.8 percent). Of note, the Colonials shot just 34.5 percent from the floor in the second half.
Both YSU and Robert Morris were of fire from the field in the opening half as the Colonials made 21-of-32 shots (65.6 percent) while the Guins made 21-of-34 (61.8 percent). Leading RMU (2-5) in scoring was Jones who had 22.
The Penguins opened the game by making eight of their first 12 attempts and 14 of their first 20 (70 percent). On the heels of the hot shooting, the Guins scored a season first-half high 46 points.
Despite leading for almost the entire half, the Penguins allowed the Colonials to score the final 10 points in a 70-second flourish to take the lead into the locker room. After Elijah Minnie finished an alley opp dunk with seven seconds left, RMU stole the inbounds pass and Lucky Jones drained a 3-pointer as the first half horn sounded giving it a 48-46 lead at the break.
YSU had a 17-7 lead just under five minutes into the contest and was on top 37-27 later in the half when Cole knocked down a 20 footer. RMU eventually whipped out a 46-38 deficit with its 10-0 run to end the period.
Evansville 86, Wright State 78
The Wright State men's basketball team could not overcome a 67 percent shooting night by Evansville, 75 percent in the second half, as the Raiders fell to the Purple Aces 86-78 Tuesday night at the Ford Center.
Back-to-back threes from Grant Benzinger tied the score for the fourth time in the first half at 29 with 5:58 remaining, only to see Evansville regain the lead with six straight points. A 7-2 run, capped off by a Steven Davis three, drew the Raiders to within one at the 1:33 mark before two Jaylon Moore free throws in the final minute gave the Purple Aces a 39-36 halftime advantage.
A pair of Davis baskets put WSU up 46-45 early in the second half and five straight Benzinger points gave the Raiders their biggest lead of the night at 51-48 with 15:09 to play.
Evansville, however, followed with an 18-0 run over the next 6:50, eight coming from DJ Balentine, and the margin was 16 before Wright State rallied with a 22-10 run, eight by Joe Thomasson and seven from Davis, to only trail 82-78 with 28 seconds left.
WSU, though, would get no closer as the Purple Aces scored the final four points of the game.
The Raiders shot a strong 51 percent from the field for the game, including 11 of 29 from three-point range, but Evansville was even hotter, shooting 67 percent overall and making 18 of 24 shots in the second half. The Purple Aces led 50-22 in points in the paint.
Thomasson led Wright State with 20 points while Davis had a career-high 18 along with six rebounds. Benzinger added a season-high 18 as he connected on five three-pointers.
Balentine paced all scorers with 28 points for Evansville (5-1) while Egidiju Mockevicius posted a double-double of 20 points and 11 rebounds.
Grand Canyon 66, UIC 61
The UIC men’s basketball team (2-6) dropped a heartbreaker at home on Tuesday night against Grand Canyon (3-4) by a final score of 66-61. Fifth-year transfer Jay Harris netted a game-high 17 points, while totaling career-highs of seven assists and seven rebounds. Junior Jake Wiegand secured his fourth double-double of the season with 12 points and 10 rebounds.
The Antelopes jumped out to an early 14-6 lead by the 12:39 mark, but a 7-0 run for UIC pulled the Flames to within one (14-13) with 8:25 left in the half.
With 4:17 on the clock, UIC knotted the score at 21-21 after a Wiegand dunk and a three-pointer from junior Jason McClellan. Grand Canyon closed out the half with five straight points for a 26-21 advantage at the break.
The Flames came out firing to start the second half with a 9-2 run, taking their first lead of the game (30-28) at the 16:49 mark. Freshman Tai Odiase scored six of those nine points all within a two-minute and 23-second stretch. Odiase finished the night with eight points in 12 minutes of action.
The game went back-and-forth for the next several minutes until the ‘Lopes executed an 8-2 offensive spurt to take a 47-39 edge with 9:11 left to play.
UIC pulled to within three points (52-49) at the 5:41 mark after a layup by senior Marc Brown, but Grand Canyon answered with four straight points to reclaim a three-possession lead.
The Flames kept fighting and cut GCU’s lead down to 63-61 with 20 seconds on the clock after two straight layups from Harris and junior D'Juan Miller. The ‘Lopes converted their foul shots down the stretch as UIC’s final two offensive attempts came up short.
Harris’ 17 points serves as his eighth double-digit effort in his last nine collegiate games, dating back to his final four games with Wagner.
McClellan was efficient as he posted six points and six rebounds in a mere 12 minutes of work. Miller dished out six assists and chipped in four points.
UIC continues to be one of the nation’s best free-throwing shooting teams as they hit 18-of-20 tonight, bringing its season average to 79 percent. The Flames won the rebounding battle by a margin of 39-32 and doubled GCU on the offensive glass, 14-7.
Tags: Horizon League - Men's Basketball · Youngstown State - Men's Basketball
