Penguins Hold Off Wright State in 74-69 Win at the Nutter Center

by YSU

Monday, Feb 16, 2015 8:41 pm

Dayton, Ohio – Sophomore Marcus Keene scored 20 points with eight rebounds and senior Shawn Amiker scored all of his 13 points in the second half as the Youngstown State men's basketball team held on for a 74-69 win over Wright State on Sunday afternoon at the Nutter Center.

Keene just missed his first career double-double with eight rebounds and junior Bobby Hain scored 14 points with seven rebounds. Senior DJ Cole scored all nine of his points in the second half and became just the fifth player in school history to record 400 career assists. Cole had two assists against Raiders and has 401 for his career.

With the win, the Penguins improve to 11-17 overall and 2-11 in the Horizon League. The win also marks Head Coach Jerry Slocum's 699th career win. Wright State falls to 11-15 overall and 3-9 in the league.
Leading the Raiders was Grant Benzinger with 22 points and Michael Karena with 14 points.

The Penguins, who shot 56.9 percent from the field, led by as many as 10 points in the second half on two different occasions - 48-38 and 50-40 - before the Raiders made a charge.

Wright State went on a 14-6 run to get within two, 56-54, midway through the half. A jumper by Amiker, a dunk by Cole and a 3-pointer by Amiker stretched the Penguins' advantage to seven, 63-56, at the 7:27 mark.

The Raiders scored 13 of the next 18 points to take a 69-68 lead after a layup by Benzinger with 2:13 to go.

Amiker regained the lead for the Penguins with two free throws at the 1:57 mark and hit a jumper to push the lead to three, 72-69, with 37 seconds to go.

Junior Shaun Stewart sealed the victory with two more charity tosses with 14 seconds left.

The Raiders tied the game at 36-36 right after halftime, but the Penguins went on a 12-2 run to take a 10-point lead, 48-38, with 16:35 left.

Hain started the Penguins' with a layup and Keene extended the lead to five with a 3-pointer. Cole made a layup and a 3-pointer to give the Penguins their biggest lead of the game.
In the first half, the Penguins shot an impressive 59.3 percent and overcame an early seven-point deficit. The Penguins, though, hurt themselves with nine turnovers that lead to eight Raiders points. The Penguins also used their size to their advantage, scoring 20 points in the paint.

Benzinger scored seven of the Raiders' first 10 points, which spurred WSU to a 10-3 lead and a 12-5 edge with 16:52 left.

The Penguins went on a 10-2 run to take a 15-14 lead after Keene hit his second 3-pointer of the game. Youngstown State pushed its lead to 21-17 after a jumper by Osandai Vaughn and Hain at the 9:53 mark.

After four more ties, a dunk by Sidney Umude and a three-point play by Hain pushed the Penguins' lead to five, 34-29.

The teams traded baskets before Wright State's Mark Howell converted a 3-point play to cut the YSU lead to two, 36-34, at the intermission.

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