YOUNGSTOWN STATE 76, LOYOLA 62 YSU has early Christmas

The Penguins survived a late run by Loyola to seal their first win in seven games.
YOUNGSTOWN -- The struggling Youngstown State Penguins got the early Christmas present they needed Tuesday night -- a victory.
Sophomore guard Quin Humphrey scored 26 points and junior guard Zach Silverman scored 17, both career highs, as the Penguins (3-6, 1-1 Horizon League) defeated Loyola 76-68 in front of 1,562 fans at the Beeghly Center.
Freshman forward John Barber added 14 points and senior forward Brian Radakovich pulled down 13 rebounds as the Penguins broke a six-game losing streak and took their first Horizon League win.
"It was a gutty win," Youngstown State coach John Robic said. "Probably last week, we wouldn't have won this one. We're all going to have a great Christmas."
The Penguins, who lost five of the six games in the streak by 16 points or more, never trailed by more than five points in this one.
Key moments
They emerged from a back-and-forth first half with a 30-28 halftime lead, took the lead for good with a seven-point run early in the second half, and survived a late surge by the Ramblers (2-8, 0-1). Loyola lost its 16th straight road game in its Horizon League opener.
"The win helps us a lot," Silverman said. "We had been feeling pretty down on ourselves, but we played pretty well tonight. We helped each other on defense and shots were falling pretty good."
Silverman, a 6-5 junior college transfer who entered the game averaging 5.8 points a game, was given his fourth start of the season to provide defensive help on 6-7 Loyola forward Blake Schilb, who led the Ramblers with 25 points.
But his offense helped the Penguins seal the deal in the second half. Silverman scored 14 of his 17 points in the second half. He hit 4-of-9 3-pointers.
"He stepped up and hit some big shots," Robic said. "Brian Radakovich made some big free throws. A lot of guys stepped up. I think they're growing and starting to understand."
Humphrey scored 12 of his points in the first half as the Penguins struggled with 41.7 percent shooting from the field and committed 13 first half-turnovers while scrapping for a two-point lead at intermission.
Good shooting, bad turnovers
The lead changed hands eight times in the first half.
"I thought we took good shots the whole game," Robic said. "We didn't have a lot of forced bad shots. We still fell apart in some places with too many turnovers."
The Penguins, who shot 53 percent from the field in the second half, took the lead for good at 32-31 on a pair of free throws by Radakovich a minute and 2 seconds into the second half. They stretched the lead to nine (56-47) on Silverman's three-pointer with 9:19 to play.
Loyola trimmed the lead to one point twice in the final four minutes, but Humphrey scored 12 points in that stretch to help the Penguins hang on.
"Coach stressed to us that we need to break even in the conference games before we went to the Christmas break," Humphrey said, referring to the Penguins' 72-51 loss at Wright State in the conference opener Saturday. "We can have a good holiday now."
Youngstown State returns to action at 7 p.m. on Dec. 29 against Wright State at the Beeghly Center.