Penguins suffer two Horizon setbacks

The men lost to Cleveland St. 77-69, while the women fell to Wright St. 65-31.

STAFF/wire REPORTS

CLEVELAND — Norris Cole scored 19 points and Jeremy Montgomery added 18 to help Cleveland State beat Youngstown State 77-69 on Saturday.

D’Aundray Brown (Ursuline) had a double-double with 11 points, 12 rebounds and six steals for the Vikings (10-12, 6-4 Horizon League). Trevon Harmon finished with 14 points.

Cleveland State, which never trailed, scored the game’s first nine points and went into halftime with a 30-21 lead. The Vikings pushed their margin to 17 points — their largest of the game — on a 3-pointer by Montgomery with 10 minutes left in the second half.

The Penguins (8-13, 2-9) attempted a rally, cutting Cleveland State’s lead to 72-66 on Kelvin Bright’s 3-pointer with 37 seconds to play. But the Vikings hit their free throws down the stretch to pull away.

DeAndre Mays led Youngstown State with 27 points. Bright had 12 points and Vance Cooksey added 10.

“We shot 34 percent and missed four layups in the second half,” said Youngstown State coach Jerry Slocum. “We’re not going to win games playing like that. I hate to sound like a broken record but it’s the same thing every game.”

Wright State 65, YSU 31

DAYTON — Wright State opened the second half on a 17-2 run and scored 32 points off of Youngstown State’s 31 turnovers at the Nutter Center.

Youngstown State (0-20, 0-9 Horizon League) led 22-20 with 3:28 remaining in the first half, but Wright State (7-12, 3-6) forced 20 turnovers in the second half.

Maryum Jenkins and Kaitlyn March scored seven points apiece to lead YSU. Brandi Brown was limited to three points because of early foul trouble, but she grabbed a game-high 14 rebounds.

Ta-myra Davis scored a game-high 18 points on 8-for-10 shooting and grabbed 10 rebounds for Wright State, which won its second straight. LaShawna Thomas added 17 points, and Kanisha Ward had 10 assists.

The first half went back-and-forth until Wright State scored the final nine points over the final three minutes to go into the locker room ahead 29-22. Youngstown State led 22-20, but the Penguins made one field goal in the final seven minutes.