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Penguins are better, but still lose 79-71
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FLOORED: De'Andre Mays of Youngstown State and Butler's Shelvin Mack battle for the ball during Saturday's game at Beeghly Center. The Penguins fell 79-71 to their Horizon League rival.
By Pete Mollica
Youngstown State battled with unbeaten Butler, but just couldn’t pull out a victory.
YOUNGSTOWN — The Youngstown State men’s basketball team put together its best 40 minutes Saturday night and still came away empty.
The Penguins (1-6, 0-2 Horizon League) overcame a 19-point second half deficit and pulled to within four points before suffering a 79-71 loss to unbeaten Butler before 2,657 fans at Beeghly Center.
The Penguins shot better than the Bulldogs (46 percent to 44 percent), outrebounded them 29-25 and had a perfect night at the foul line (17-of-17), but still couldn’t stop the Bulldogs (7-0, 2-0).
The difference came in the first half when the Penguins committed 14 turnovers to Butler’s four and were outscored 21-4 off those turnovers.
“We played hard for 40 minutes tonight, but is still came down to those turnovers in the first half,” said YSU coach Jerry Slocum. “You can’t give any team that kind of advantage let alone a good team like Butler.”
Still, the Penguins, who trailed 52-33 with 14:48 left in the game, battled back and with three minutes remaining were within four (70-66), but the Bulldogs connected on 7-of-8 free throws down the stretch and the Penguins were cold from the 3-point range.
“It’s pretty tough to defend the foul line,” said Slocum. “We had our chances, but couldn’t make the 3s and then we gave up the ball on an untimely offensive foul and that kind of ended our hopes.”
Junior Kelvin Bright had a career night for the Penguins as he scored 27 points to lead all scorers. Bright made 5-of-9 from 3-point range. Junior Sirlester Martin added 12 points and led the team with nine rebounds.
Butler, which doesn’t have a senior on the team and started three freshmen, was led by sophomore Matt Howard with 23 points and nine rebounds and freshman Shelvin Mack with 22 points.
The Penguins battled the Bulldogs early, taking their only lead midway through the first half. YSU’s biggest lead was 15-11 with 11:30 remaining, but the Bulldogs went on a 20-5 run and with 4:42 remaining the Penguins were trailing 31-20. Butler led at the half 39-28.
The Bulldogs tried to runaway with the contest in the early minutes of the second half as they outscored the Penguins 13-5 in the first five minutes to build a 52-33 advantage.
But the Penguins started to whittle away at the lead, getting to 57-49 with 9:20 left on a Martin basket before the Bulldogs rebuilt the lead to 13 points (70-57).
YSU then ran off nine straight points, the final three on a shot by Bright, who scored 17 points in the second half, closing the gap to 70-66.
But the Penguins went just 1-of-6 from behind the arc over the final three minutes and the Bulldogs, who finished 20-of-25 at the foul line, connected on 7-of-8 down the stretch.
The Penguins are idle for the next nine days, several of which will be taken up by final exams. They will return to action Dec. 15 at Kent State at 7 p.m..
mollica@vindy.com