Box Score
Darius Quisenberry scored 20 points, and Naz Bohannon posted his fourth double-double of the season as the Youngstown State men's basketball team lost 72-70 on Friday evening at Beeghly Center.
The Penguins (13-11, 8-11 Horizon League) led 31-17 on a Quisenberry basket with 4:47 left in the first half, but IUPUI (8-8, 7-8 Horizon League) ended the half on a 20-3 run to take a 37-34 lead at the break. The Penguins then held a 65-57 lead with less than seven minutes left in the second half. The Jaguars ended the game on a 15-5 spurt as YSU missed 14 of its last 17 shot attempts.
Quisenberry was 7-for-15 from the field overall and 3-for-7 from 3-point range. Bohannon went 7-or-9 from the field to score 16 points, and he added 10 rebounds. Garrett Covington added 16 points, and he was the Penguins' top scorer in the second half with nine.
IUPUI's Marcus Burk scored a game-high 24 points before fouling out with 6:57 left. With the top scorer out of the game, five different Jaguars scored down the stretch.
The Penguins went on a 19-4 run in the first half as they built their 14-point lead. Down 11-10 with 11 minutes left, Bohannon scored eight points during the run that saw the Penguins go up 29-15. The margin was 14 again on a Quisenberry layup at the 4:47 mark, but YSU had one field goal the rest of the half. Burk made two free throws, a driving layup and a pair of 3-pointers in the final 1:52 to help IUPUI take a 37-34 lead at halftime
Burk's final points came at the free-throw line at the 13:53 mark of the second half, and he put the Jaguars ahead 51-47. Michael Akuchie's bucket 16 seconds later sparked a 9-0 run that extended to a 12-1 spurt on Geoff Hamperian's 3-pointer with 10:31 remaining. The largest lead in the second half was 65-57 on two Shemar Rathan-Mayes free throws with 7:27 left.
After those free throws, IUPUI scored 10 straight points to go up 67-66 at the 2:36 mark. Quisenberry hit a 3-pointer on a baseline out-of-bounds play seven seconds later that gave the Penguins their final lead at 68-67, and Azariah Seay hit a big free-throw line jumper with three seconds left on the shot clock to put the Jaguars back up with 1:47 left. YSU did not lead again.
IUPUI went 1-for-4 from the free-throw line in the final 28.4 seconds to give the Penguins a chance. Bohannon's putback with 10 seconds left trimmed YSU's deficit to 71-70, and Miek DePersia split two free throws with 9.4 seconds left. The Penguins didn't get a quality look on offense, and Quisenberry missed a last-second contested 3-pointer.
IUPUI had a slight shooting edge at 46.3 percent to 44.1 percent, and the Jaguars made one more 3-pointer and three more free throws. IUPUI was 8-for-17 from long distance, while YSU was 7-for-22.
The Penguins and Jaguars will conclude the regular season on Saturday at 5 p.m. The game will be broadcast live on 570 WKBN and ESPN3.
