Box Score
Northern Kentucky's Adrian Nelson made a game-winning layup on an out-of-bounds play with 1.4 seconds to lift the Norse to a 68-67 victory over the Youngstown State men's basketball team on Thursday evening at Beeghly Center.
Nelson's bucket spoiled a late comeback attempt by the Penguins, who completed an 8-1 run to go up 67-66 on Tevin Olison's layup with 9.7 seconds remaining. Sam Vinson missed NKU's first go-ahead attempt, and Nelson threw a loose ball off a Penguin defender with 2.4 seconds left. After a delay to ensure the correct time was on the clock, Nelson cut to the right block and scored on a pass from Vinson with 1.4 seconds left.
Olison finished with a team-high 18 points and made three of YSU's eight 3-pointers. Three other Penguins reached double figures, including Michael Akuchie, who became the 41st player in program history to reach 1,000 career points. Akuchie finished the night with 12 points, Dwayne Cohill had 16, and Shemar Rathan-Mayes finished with 13.
Cohill went 10-for-10 from the free-throw line, and the Penguins went 19-for-23 as a team.
Marques Warrick scored a game-high 20 points to lead Northern Kentucky.
The Penguins led by as many as nine in the first half, but Northern Kentucky was able to close the half on a 10-5 spurt to get within 28-24 at the break.
NKU hit a 3 on its first possession less than a minute into the game, but it missed its next seven field-goal attempts and didn't score again until the 12:34 mark. The Penguins started 2-for-9 to allow the Norse to hang around, and Rathan-Mayes' 3-pointer with 13:55 on the clock gave YSU a 7-3 lead and ended a stretch where neither team scored for more than 3:20.
The Norse tied the game at 7-7 on a Nelson layup at the 11:46 mark, but Akuchie hit a wide-open 3-pointer on a pass from Cohill to get to 1,000 career points and give YSU a 10-7 lead. The Penguins held the upper hand until there was 12:04 left in the second half.
The Penguins extended their lead to its peak at 23-14 when Cohill scored on a pass from Jamir Thomas on a cut to the basket with 3:47 remaining. The margin was 25-17 after a Rathan-Mayes layup with 2:13 on the clock, but that was YSU's final field goal of the half.
The second half was played within four points until NKU led 65-59 with 1:30 left.
Northern Kentucky got within one for the first time at 39-38 on a Warrick 3-pointer at the 13:22 mark, but Daniel Ogoro's 3-pointer on the next possession pushed the margin back to four at 42-38. NKU scored the next five points to take its first lead since the opening minutes, and the score was within one point for more than three minutes until Trevor Faulkner put NKU ahead 49-46 with 8:55 remaining.
Cohill's two free throws with 7:15 left knotted the score at 52, but the Penguins didn't overtake the Norse until Olison's go-ahead bucket with 8.9 seconds left. The Norse had a pair of five-point leads before they went up 65-59 with 90 seconds on the clock.
With YSU down six, Akuchie had a three-point play out of a timeout to cut the deficit in half, and NKU went 1-for-4 from the free-throw line in the final 45 seconds to give the Penguins a chance. Vinson split a pair with 44.9 seconds left to make the score 66-62, and Olison hit a big 3 nine seconds later to get the Penguins within one. Jake Evans missed both of his free-throw attempts in front of a rowdy student section with 18.6 seconds left, and Olison's driving layup with 9.7 seconds on the clock gave YSU its 67-66 lead.
NKU shot 46.9% in the second half to finish at 39.3% for the game, and the Norse went 5-for-12 from 3-point range in the final 20 minutes. YSU finished shooting 35.7% overall and 8-of-24 from 3-point range.
Youngstown State will conclude its four-game homestand on Saturday as it hosts Wright State at 7 p.m. The game will be broadcast live on 570 WKBN and ESPN+.
Saturday's Promotions
- High School Band Night
- Backboards and Blackboards - Teachers Appreciation Night - $5 GA tickets with valid teacher's ID
- YSU Athletic Department Rummage Sale
- YSU Mouse Pad Giveaway courtesy of PNC, Allstate Rocco Nolfi Agencies, Mercy Health and WFMJ
- $5 Dunkin gift card for YSU students
