COLLEGE HOOPS Red Flash use late run to beat YSU

St. Francis knocked off the Penguins, 70-56.
YOUNGSTOWN -- The Youngstown State Penguins lived and -- in the end -- died by the shooting streak Wednesday night in a 70-56 loss to St. Francis (Pa.) in front of 1,870 fans at the Beeghly Center.
The Penguins (3-7) wiped out a seven-point halftime deficit on their way to a short-lived lead early in the second half, but the Red Flash used a 15-0 run to take over the game in the final minutes.
Brian Radakovich scored 14 points and pulled down 10 rebounds, and Quin Humphrey put in 14 points for YSU, which lost for the seventh time in eight games. The Red Flash improved to 6-4.
But for YSU, this may rank as one of the most puzzling setbacks, coming on the heels of a well-played 76-68 victory over Loyola eight days ago.
"It's disappointing for us, and I can't really explain it," Penguins coach John Robic said. "We were coming off a good win last week and three good days of practice coming back after Christmas."
Poor shooting
But the Penguins had problems putting the ball in the basket from start to finish. YSU shot 38.6 percent from the field, including a 3-for-15 effort from 3-point range.
They didn't score their first basket until the game was three minutes old (actually trailing only 3-2 at that point), and went almost five minutes without a field goal in another stretch of the first half.
Despite all that, they never trailed by more than eight in the first half, due in part to a pounding inside effort by Radakovich. The 6-foot-7 senior forward grabbed seven of his 10 rebounds in the first half.
"We came out strong and aggressive and got the ball inside pretty well," Radakovich said. "We should have kept up that intensity, but we started standing around and taking too many jump shots."
But for a few minutes in the second half, that didn't work too badly, as the Penguins pecked away at St. Francis' 32-25 halftime lead.
It got off to a rocky start when Humphrey, struggling through a 6-for-18 night form the field, missed a point-blank jam and a breakaway layup on consecutive possessions.
"That was the way it went for us," Robic said. "The balls didn't go in, even when we had great shots. We made a good run after that, but couldn't hang on."
Short-lived lead
Radakovich scored six points and John Barber added a 3-pointer in a surge that put YSU in front for the first time at 38-37 with 14 minutes remaining in the game on a jumper by Radakovich.
They held that lead for the next four minutes, highlighted by an emphatic breakaway dunk from Humphrey after a big blocked shot on the defensive end from guard Zach Silverman. That three-point lead (40-37) was YSU's biggest.
After that, the game turned from ragged to nightmarish for the Penguins. After a free throw by Silverman gave the Penguins a 43-41 lead, they didn't score until Derrick Harris hit a jump shot with 5:28 remaining in the game for a 56-45 score. YSU couldn't get any closer.
Rahsaan Benton, the game's leading scorer with 18 points, hit a pair of 3-pointers in the run. Darshan Luckey, St. Francis' top scorer at almost 20 points a game, was double-teamed for much of the game, finishing with 14. Jason Osborne scored 11 for the Red Flash.
YSU returns to action at 1 p.m. Friday against Duquesne at the Palumbo Center in Pittsburgh.
"It's a quick turnaround, the two games in three days," Robic said. "We'll have to will our way through that one."