Hain, Keene lead YSU over Robert Morris

Staff report

MOON TOWNSHIP, PA.

Bobby Hain had a career night, Marcus Keene continued to impress and Youngstown State’s men’s basketball team did something on Tuesday night that it’s never done under head coach Jerry Slocum: win at Robert Morris.

Hain scored 24 points on 10 of 13 shooting and also grabbed a career-best 14 rebounds for the Penguins, who defeated the Colonials 89-81 to earn their first win at the Sewall Center since January of 2001.

Youngstown State (5-4) outscored Robert Morris 14-6 in the final 21/2 minutes.

“I told the guys in the last media timeout, ‘This is our time. This is where we’ve outplayed every team all year long,’” said Slocum, whose team has won four of its last five games.

The contest was tied at 75 with 2:34 remaining when Shawn Amiker knocked down a pair of free throws. That was the sixth and final tie of the evening.

RMU’s Stephan Bennett missed a shot from just inside the 3-point line and, after a scramble, Keene corralled the long rebound.

With 1:41 left, on its next possession, Keene came off a Hain screen and drained a 3-pointer to push the Penguin lead up to 80-75.

Keene came up big on the next defensive possession as Lucky Jones could not connect on a long 3-pointer and after RMU grabbed the rebound, Keene stole the ball and was fouled. With 1:20 left he went to the line and sank the pair to push the lead to 82-75.

A deep 3 by RMU’s Rodney Pryor slashed the Penguin lead down to 82-78 but Hain knocked down a pair of free throws with 1:06 remaining to make the contest 84-78.

After Kavon Stewart missed an open layup down the lane, Keene made two free throws with 52.1 seconds left to make the advantage 86-76 for YSU.

Keene finished with 24 points for YSU, which knocked down 10 3-pointers and shot 33 of 61 from the field. Keene has scored 20 points or more in five of the last seven games.

“I thought we shot the ball so much better than we have all year,” said Slocum. “This is a tough place to shoot.”

YSU had five players score in double figures as Amiker added 12, Shaun Stewart had 11 and Jalon Plummer finished with 10 to join Hain and Keene.

“I didn’t think they had anyone who could play Bob,” Slocum said. “He played extremely well, I thought Stew [Stewart] gave us a real good lift tonight and Marcus was a gamer at the end.”

Jones scored 21 points off the bench to lead the Colonials, who led 48-46 at halftime but shot just 34.5 percent from the floor in the second half. Rodney Pryor added 14 off the bench as the Colonials’ reserves outscored YSU’s bench 44-13.

The Penguins are back on the road Friday night when they take on South Dakota at 8. They return home to play Thiel on Sunday at 4 p.m.