The Youngstown State men's basketball team scored 11 of the final 13 points of the first half and made its first four 3-point attempts in the second half to beat UT Martin 90-72 on Wednesday evening at Beeghly Center.
The Penguins led for more than 37 minutes as they won their 2022-23 home opener and improved to 2-0 in the young campaign. UT Martin fell to 0-2.
Dwayne Cohill tied for game-high honors with 19 points, going 7-for-10 from the field and 3-for-4 from the free-throw line. He added five assists and made two of YSU's eight 3-pointers. He was joined in double figures by five teammates as Malek Green, Garrett Covington and Brandon Rush each scored a dozen points and Adrian Nelson and John Lovelace Jr. had 10. Four of those were part of YSU's talented group of newcomers, and new Penguins accounted for 50 of the team's 90 points. Nelson added 12 rebounds for his first double-double at YSU.
KJ Simon scored 19 points to lead three Skyhawks in double figures.
The Penguins took their first lead of the night at the 17:58 mark on a 3-pointer by Covington, who was playing in his sixth home opener for YSU, and they went on to score seven straight points to take a 7-3 lead with 17:26 on the clock.
The Skyhawks went back up when Simon scored five straight points, but the Penguins countered with a 10-point burst to go up 17-8 on a Rush 3-pointer with 13:41 on the clock. Rush became the fifth different Penguin to score in the first seven minutes of the game.
Youngstown State held the upper hand until a KK Curry basket gave the Skyhawks a 27-26 lead with 6:33 remaining. UT Martin forced its second straight turnover and had a chance to extend its lead, but Lovelace came up with a big block in transition that sparked an 11-2 run to end the half.
Shemar-Rathan Mayes made two free throws after the block to put the Penguins back on top, and YSU nearly matched its largest lead of the half in the final minute when McBride's jumper made the score 37-29 with 34 seconds left. That ended up being the final bucket of the half.
The Penguins built their eight-point halftime lead despite shooting 36.1 percent from the field in the first 20 minutes. The Penguins forced the Skyhawks into 10 turnovers, which allowed them to hold a 12-6 edge in points off turnovers. Cohill made his first four attempts and had 11 points to lead all scorers, and Nelson had seven points and seven rebounds.
Green scored on the opening possession to push the margin to 39-29, which was the first double-digit lead of the game, and extend YSU's run to 13-2 after the Lovelace block. After Simon scored for UT Martin at the 19:11 mark to make the score 39-31, Green followed with two free throws to get the lead back to double figures for good. Youngstown State led by at least 10 for the final 18:51 of the game.
The lead reached 15 at 46-31 on a 3-pointer by Cohill at the 17:51 mark, and Rush's 3-pointer eight minutes later score 67-46 to create the first 20-point cushion of the game. YSU was 4-for-4 from 3-point range in the half at that point, and Rush's trey came right after Nelson's 10th rebound.
Covington hit a baseline floater at the 5:42 mark to put YSU ahead 75-59 and become the fifth Penguin to reach double figures, and his tip-in with 3:18 on the clock allowed the Penguins to match their largest lead of the night at 84-63. Lovelace joined the group in double figures on a basket with 41.4 seconds left that gave the Penguins their 90th point of the night, and Simon scored on UT Martin's final possession for the final margin.
Youngstown State shot 54.3% in the second half to improve its percentage to 45.1%. The Penguins were 32-for-71 overall and 8-for-22 from beyond the arc, and they went 18-for-23 from the free-throw line. UT Martin shot 46.7% for the game and was 5-for-15 on 3-point attempts.
Youngstown State's next game will be at Notre Dame on Sunday at 4 p.m. The game will be broadcast live on 570 WKBN and iHeartRadio.
