Wednesday, November 19, 2014
Staff report
Mount Pleasant, Mich.
Career nights by Marcus Keene and Shaun Stewart weren’t enough for the Youngstown State men’s basketball team win on the road Tuesday night.
Keene scored 24 points on 8-of-15 shooting, including five 3-pointers, while Stewart added 14 points and six rebounds, but Central Michigan beat YSU, 85-63, at McGuirk Arena.
The Chippewas (2-0) were led by Chris Fowler with 16 points, Luke Meyer with 13 points and Braylon Rayson with 12.
After trailing by 11 at the intermission, the Penguins (1-2) fell behind by 15, 59-44, with 7:48 left before making a surge.
Keene, who scored 22 of his 24 points in the second half, started a 9-0 run with a 3-pointer and Osandai Vaughn’s old-fashioned three-point play got the Penguins within nine, 59-50, at the 7:02 mark.
A free throw by Stewart and two more by Keene cut the Chippewa lead to six, 59-53, with 4:07 left.
Central Michigan scored the next six to extend its lead back to 12, 65-53, and, after the Penguins got back within eight after a Bobby Hain layup and two free throws by Vaughn, the Chippewas pushed the lead back tp 13 with just under two minutes left in the game.
The Penguins fell behind 12-3 in the first five minutes of the game before using a 13-4 run to knot the game at 16-16 with 9:04 left in the first half.
After an exchange of baskets, Shawn Amiker hit a jumper and a free throw to get the Penguins with in six, 14-8, at the 11:51 mark.
Stewart, who scored 13 of his 14 in the first half, hit two straight 3-pointers to knot the game at 14-14, at the 10:45 mark.
After a layup by CMU’s Fowler, Stewart knotted the game at 16.
Central Michigan rebuilt its lead to five, 25-20, but Stewart drained his third 3-pointer of the first half to get within two, 25-23, with 3:29 left.
The Chippewas closed out the first half on an 11-2 scoring run to take a 36-25 lead at the intermission.
Youngstown State shot 36.8 percent from the field and Central Michigan was not much better at 39.1 percent from the floor. The Penguins, though, made just 56.5 percent of its free-throw attempts while the Chippewas converted 76 percent.
The Penguins visit Eastern Michigan at 7 p.m. Friday in Ypsilanti, Mich.