Youngstown State University
Akron
Mays Pours in 18, Guins Drop 67-53 Contest to Akron
1/26/2009 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Youngstown -- The Youngstown State men's basketball team never found its shooting touch all night in suffering a 67-53 loss to Akron in a non-conference matchup on Monday at the Beeghly Center.
Junior guard DeAndre Mays was a bright spot on the evening scoring a game-high 18 points for the Penguins. Mays made 7-of-14 attempts from the field, including two 3-point attempts. He also grabbed a career-high eight rebounds.
The Guins connected on 32.7 percent (18-of-55) for the contest from the field and struggled from the free-throw line as well making 50 percent (12-of-24).
Mays tied the contest at 33 with 15:22 remaining in the contest before the Zips scored seven straight to go in front for good. YSU stopped the run when Mays made two free throws at the 12:44 mark to pull YSU within 40-35.
Akron scored the next five points before Dan Boudler made a layup at the 8:04 mark. Boudler's make was the first for the Guins since Mays' bucket at 15:22 and snapped a streak of 10 consecutive misses.
Kelvin Bright drained a pullup jumper in the lane just over a minute later to get the Penguins within 48-41. Akron answered with two free throws to go back up by nine.
YSU got the score under double figures at 54-45, but a three-point play by Nate Linhart pushed the lead to 12, Akron's largest of the game to that point.
Down the stretch the Zips made nine straight free throws to earn the victory.
With the loss, YSU drops to 6-13 while Akron improves to 11-8.
For YSU, Kelvin Bright was the only other player to reach double figures finishing with 11. Linhart led the Zips with 15 points while Chris McKnight had 13. Both players had nine rebounds. Sirlester Martin had 11 board for the Guins.
Woeful free-throw shooting kept the Penguins from holding the lead at halftime, but following a late run they were able to get within 29-27.
From the line in the first half, YSU was 6-of-16 with seven of the misses coming from Bright.
Of all three shooting categories, YSU was most efficient from behind the 3-point line. From behind the arc and -- and from the line, the Guins shot 37.5 percent (3-of-8 and 6-of-16). Overall from the field, YSU shot 34.6 percent (9-of-26).
Akron started 4-for-16 from the field but closed out the half 7-for-15 to shoot 35.5 percent (11-of-31) for the period. The Zips made 4-of-5 free-throw attempts.
YSU was strong on the boards outrebounding Akron 23-19. The Guins committed just seven turnovers to UA's six.
YSU led 19-11 after Mays' 3-pointer at the 9:13 mark, but Akron went on an 18-3 run over the next minutes to go up 29-22. The Zips scored eight straight tying the game at 19 on a 3-pointer by Jimmy Conners.
The Penguins scored the final five points of the half to get within two at the break. Down seven, Tom Parks drained a deep 3-pointer from the wing and Bright hit a hanging jumper from 16 feet with 32 seconds left to pull YSU within two points.
The Penguins return to Horizon League action on Thursday night when they play host to Wright State. Tipoff at Beeghly is set for 7:35 p.m. following the women's game against UIC.
