YSU men routed 81-61 by Raiders

The loss ended any hopes the team had of a home league tournament game.
VINDICATOR STAFF/WIRE REPORT
DAYTON -- Whatever hopes the Youngstown State men's basketball team had of playing host to a first-round Horizon League tournament game went down the drain Thursday night.
The Penguins weren't in the game after the first 10 minutes, suffering an 81-61 loss to Wright State at the Ervin J. Nutter Center.
The loss dropped the Penguins (8-16, 4-10 HL) three games behind sixth-place Butler with only two league games remaining. Youngstown State, which plays at Butler next week, will probably meet the Bulldogs in the opening round of the tournament there as well.
Wright State (14-11, 10-4) moved into a three-way tie with Illinois-Chicago and Wisconsin-Green Bay for second place.
McQueen led way
The Penguins had only one player score in double figures. Six-foot-5 junior Khari McQueen equaled his career best with 13 points.
McQueen didn't score in the first half and had all 13 points in succession in a five-minute stretch of the second half.
What hurt the Penguins, besides their poor overall play, was that their top three scorers -- Doug Underwood, Adam Baumann and TeJay Anderson -- combined for 12 points. Baumann scored just two second half points, but did lead YSU with eight rebounds, although the Penguins lost the rebounding battle, 38-35.
Wright State's Vernard Hollins put on a show during senior night for the Raiders, leading all scorers with 24 points. Freshman DaShawn Wood added 19 points.
"You have to give Wright State credit, they just totally outplayed us tonight," said YSU coach John Robic.
"We played poorly, we weren't aggressive and we settled for all jump shots. We just didn't attack the basket at all."
Asked about his top three scorers only scoring 12 points, Robic said, "We didn't get a whole lot from anybody.
"We also fouled too much. They [Wright State] deserved to win."
Penguins never led
The Penguins never led, but after falling behind early 15-8, they did make an 8-2 run at the Raiders that got them to within one, 17-16, with just under 10 minutes remaining.
Wright State then scored 22 of the next 28 points for a 39-22 lead and the Penguins never threatened again.
The Raiders scored the first five points of the second half to lead 44-25. They made it 56-28 with 13:23 remaining before YSU scored its first field goal of the second half.
McQueen's 13-point effort kept the Raiders from running further away, but YSU never got closer than 20 points the rest of the way.
The loss was the Penguins' 11th in 12 road games this season.
YSU will stay on the road this Saturday when it takes part in the ESPN Bracket Buster event. The Penguins will play at Bowling Green at 3:30 p.m.