Thursday, November 29, 2018
Staff report
MOON TOWNSHIP, PA.
Junior Kendale Hampton scored a game-high 21 points and tied a career high with seven 3-pointers, but it wasn’t enough for the Youngstown State men’s basketball team, which fell to Robert Morris 76-56 on Wednesday night at Charles L. Sewall Cemter.
Malik Petteway led RMU (4-3) with 16 points, Matty McConnell, Josh Williams and Jon Williams each had 12 and Koby Thomas had 10 points.
Hampton sparked a 13-0 run with three 3-pointers to erase a 14-4 deficit and gave the Penguins a 17-14 lead with 8:20 left in the first half. Hampton’s fourth 3-pointer of the game gave the Penguins their largest lead of the game at 20-16 with 7:37 le
YSU (3-5) trailed 32-31 at the half and tied the game at 32-32 on a free throw by Olamide Pedersen to start the second half.
Robert Morris went on a 19-0 run and held the Penguins scoreless for seven minutes and 11 seconds and took a 51-32 lead with 12:11 left. The Penguins missed their first 11 field goals of the second half and made just two of the first 15.
The Penguins cut the deficit to 11 points, 55-44, after a 12-4 run but the Colonials scored the next seven points and 11 of the next 13 to push their lead to 20 points, 66-46, at the 6:15 mark.
Garrett Covington and Jelani Simmons each had nine points for the Penguins and Darius Quisenberry had eight. YSU shot 35 percent (20 of 57) from the floor, including 11 of 34 from 3-point range. The Penguins also had 18 turnovers. Three of their starters — Olamide Pedersen, Naz Bohannon and Donell Cathcart III — combined for one point. That was on a Pedersen free throw early in the second half.
YSU visits West Virginia on Saturday. The game is set to tip off at 4 p.m. at the WVU Coliseum.