Penguins come up short at UW-Milwaukee, 64-62

YSU led at halftime, fell behind by as many as 13 points, then made a spirited comeback.

STAFF/WIRE REPORT

MILWAUKEE — James Eayrs scored 22 points and Ricky Franklin added 19 to lift Wisconsin-Milwaukee to a 64-62 victory over Youngstown State Monday night.

From a tie game with 12 minutes left, the Panthers (15-12, 7-8 Horizon) opened up a 13-point lead with 2:38 to play.

But the Penguins (8-18, 2-14) came close to coming back all the way, as DeAndre Mays made three 3-pointers, the last with four seconds remaining to make it 63-62.

Ryan Haggerty made a free throw for Wisconsin-Milwaukee to close out the scoring.

Ashen Ward sank a long shot that could have won the game, but after consulting the replays, the officials ruled it came after the final buzzer.

Mays led all scorers with 23 points and Vytas Sulskis finished with 12 for Youngstown State.

Mays has scored in double figures in each of the last nine games.

The Panthers controlled the boards 46-36 and made up for 31 percent shooting from the field with 25 free throws in 39 attempts. The Penguins got to the foul line 19 times, making 12.

In a closely-contested first half there were 10 lead changes and four ties before the Penguins took a 31-28 lead into the lockerroom on Eddie D’Haiti’s layup with 39 seconds to play.

The score was tied three more times in the early stages of the second half, the last time at 39-39 when Eayrs split a pair of free throws with 12:12 to play.

The Panthers took the lead for good on a steal by Lonnie Boga and a subsequent layup by Franklin with 11:37 remaining.

That was part of an 11-0 run by Milwaukee that ultimately gave the home team a 46-39 lead with 9:42 remaining.

Overall the Panthers outscored Youngstown State 20-4 over a span of 81‚Ñ2 minutes, to lead 55-43 with 5:15 to go.

Milwaukee’s biggest lead was 13 (60-47) with 2:38 to go before Mays led the comeback.

“We didn’t come out in the second half [and] put ourselves in a position to win the game,” said Penguins coach Jerry Slocum.

“We had too many turnovers and missed shots. But the kids played hard.”

YSU, which has lost 10 consecutive games in the Horizon League, will step out of conference play on Saturday, traveling to the West Coast to face UC-Riverside in the ESPN Bracket Buster game. Tipoff is scheduled for 9 p.m.