Junior Kendrick Perry became the 33rd player in Youngstown State men's basketball history to score 1,000 career points, and the Penguins ended the 2012 calendar year with a 93-52 victory over Marygrove on Saturday afternoon at Beeghly Center.
Perry's 1,000th point came on a fast-break lay-up at the 15:38 mark of the second half on a pass from Blake Allen. Perry, a native of Ocoee, Fla., exited the game two seconds later as coach Jerry Slocum called time out to allow his junior guard to celebrate the moment.
Perry became the first Penguin to reach 1,000 career points since Vytas Sulskis reached the milestone as a senior at home on Nov. 27, 2010. Quin Humphrey was the last YSU junior to score his 1,000th point in the 2005-06 season.
Perry and Allen both scored 17 points, and both enjoyed scoring spurts before resting for most of the second half.
With Marygrove holding a 4-3 lead, its only advantage of the contest, Perry scored five straight points as part of a 7-0 run that put the Penguins up 10-4. Perry scored eight of YSU's first 11 and 13 of its first 20 points, and Allen scored 12 points in the final nine minutes of the first half.
After Perry assisted on an Allen bucket with 16:10 left that gave YSU a 10-4 lead, Marygrove scored four straight points to get within two. The Mustangs trailed just 13-10, but the Penguins held them to five points in a 13-minute span to take control of the contest. YSU ended the first half on a 30-7 run and led 43-17 at halftime.
The Penguins outscored the Mustangs 50-24 in the paint and 23-0 in fast-break points. YSU also out-rebounded Marygrove 51-25 and was plus-11 in turnover margin. The Penguins had 24 offensive rebounds, one fewer than the Mustangs' total rebounding total.
YSU shot 45.1 percent in the contest and made seven of its nine 3-pointers in the first half. Allen had five triples in 24 minutes, and Perry had three in 20 minutes. Allen added a game-high eight assists, and Perry posted a complete game with six rebounds, six assists and four steals to go along with his 17 points.
Damian Eargle added 11 points in 20 minutes, and Bobby Hain had 13 off the bench for the Penguins. Zamarre Neely led Marygrove with 13 points.
Perry scored 521 points last season as the Horizon League's top scorer, and he had 269 as a freshman. Today's 17-point outing gives him 210 in the first 13 games of 2012-13.
The Penguins open Horizon League play against UIC, Wednesday, Jan. 2, at 8 p.m. in Chicago, Ill.
