Wednesday, November 26, 2008
By Pete Mollica
The Penguins let a 23-point lead in the second half get away at Robert Morris.
MOON TOWNSHIP, Pa. — Bateko Francisco converted an offensive rebound with 2.7 seconds remaining, giving Robert Morris University a come-from-behind victory over Youngstown State 74-72 Tuesday at the Charles L. Sewall Center.
But that was the least of the problems for the Penguins (1-3), who led by as many as 23 points early in the second half and couldn’t do anything to stop the Colonials (2-3).
“We just stopped being aggressive,” said YSU coach Jerry Slocum. “We didn’t do a good job of taking care of the basketball and we didn’t play with the confidence that we did over the first 25 minutes.
“When they started to make their run, we were back on our heels instead of being aggressive like we were early in the contest,” Slocum said.
“It’s very disappointing, although I thought that we played well defensively the whole game,” he said.
The Penguins dominated the first half, leading 45-30 at halftime, then scored the first five points of the second half.
They held their biggest margin (57-34) with 16:05 left in the contest, but then everything stopped happening for the Penguins.
Robert Morris, sparked by Jimmy Langhurst, went on a 17-2 run and pulled to within eight points (59-51). The Penguins scored just six points over a 10-minute span and were outscored 23-6. Helping the Colonials’ comeback was some red-hot free throw shooting. They were 19-of-21 in the second half.
“We got into some foul trouble with DeAndre [Mays] and Jack [Liles], then Dallas [Blocker] went down with a knee injury and we were short-handed out there for a while,” Slocum added.
After Robert Morris cut the margin to 63-61, the Penguins came back with a basket by sophomore Vytas Sulskis, and still led by three points 67-64 with 4:40 remaining.
The Colonials tied the score at 67 on a two free throws by Francisco before taking their first lead of the game at 2:17 on a 3-pointer by Jeremy Chappell, 70-67.
The Penguins got back to within one on a shot by junior Kelvin Bright, and after Gary Wallace hit two free throws with one minute remaining, Sulskis canned a long 3-pointer to tie the score at 72 with 40 seconds left.
After a timeout, the Colonials worked the ball for a good shot and Chappell took one with nine seconds left. The ball hit off the rim and into the hands of Francisco, who got off the game winner with 2.7 seconds left.
YSU had one last shot at winning it, but Vance Cooksey’s long jumper was off target at the buzzer.
Sulskis led all scorers with 24 points, while Bright had 17 and Sirlester Martin added 13. Blocker had six rebounds as both the Penguins and Colonials finished with 29.
YSU shot 51 percent for the night, but just 41 percent in the second half.
Chappell led the Colonials with 20 points and Langhurst added 13.
The Penguins will return to action Saturday night when they play host to St. Francis (Pa.) at 7:05 p.m. at Beeghly Center.
Bright, who played all 20 minutes of the first half scored seven of the Penguins’ first 15 points, including a 3-pointer, which was followed by another 3-pointer from Ashen Ward as YSU jumped to an 18-6 advantage.
Robert Morris cut the lead to nine points (24-15) with 9:36 remaining, but another 3-pointer by Sulskis shoved the Penguins back into double digits lead which they didn’t relinquish the rest of the half.
The Penguins shot a blistering 59.3 percent from the field in the half, making 16-of-27 attempts, and also controlled the boards 18-10, with Bright pulled down five rebounds.
mollica@vindy.com