YSU men rebound, sweep Milwaukee

Staff/wire reports

MILWAUKEE

Following Saturday’s 20-point loss to Cleveland State, Youngstown State men’s basketball coach Jerry Slocum said “this is one basketball game we’ll put in our rearview mirror real quick.”

He wasn’t kidding.

Kendrick Perry scored a career-high 30 points and Youngstown State earned a season sweep of Milwaukee, dropping the Panthers 73-65 in a Horizon League game on Tuesday.

YSU (12-9, 7-4) moved into third place in the league standings, while Milwaukee (14-10, 7-5) fell to fourth.

“That was a great bounceback game for us,” said Slocum. “We played with a lot of heart and really battled for 30 minutes.”

Perry was 9 of 16 from the floor, including 4 of 8 from 3-point range. Damian Eargle and DuShawn Brooks scored 14 points each for the Penguins, who completed a sweep of their Horizon League rivals.

Youngstown State won 68-66 at home on Jan. 20.

This time, the Penguins led 35-28 at halftime and led by as many as 18 points in the second half, although Milwaukee made things interesting in the final minutes.

After YSU took a 65-51 lead on a Perry layup with 4:27 left, the Panthers went on a 10-2 run to cut the deficit to six. But Perry made two free throws with 1:36 left and the Panthers missed two straight 3-pointers.

Eargle then had a dunk and made two free throws to make it 73-61 with 51 seconds left, ending the suspense.

Blake Allen scored just four points — 9.5 off his average — but dished out seven assists. Ashen Ward had three points — eight off his average — but led YSU with nine rebounds, all on the defensive end.

“Kendrick Perry had a special game but Ashen Ward came up with some huge defensive rebounds for us,” Slocum said.

Kaylon Williams had 17 points for the Panthers, and contributed five assists and six rebounds.