Brandon Rush scored his 1,000th career point, and the Youngstown State men's basketball team went on big runs in each half to beat Cleveland State 85-71 on Thursday night at Beeghly Center.
Youngstown State improved to 10-4 overall and 2-1 in Horizon League play, while Cleveland State dropped to 7-7 and 2-1. The Penguins have their best record through 14 games since the 1997-98 season.
Rush led all scorers with 21 points, and he finished the night with 1,002 points in his career that began at Fairleigh Dickinson and continues in Youngstown. Dwayne Cohill and Adrian Nelson both scored 16 points, and Malek Green added 15 for the Penguins. Cohill also contributed six assists as YSU posted 19 assists against nine turnovers as a team.
Tristan Enaruna and Deshon Parker each scored 18 points for Cleveland State.
YSU led for just 42 seconds in the first 10 minutes of the game, and Cleveland State held a 20-16 advantage after a dunk by Enaruna with 10:21 left in the first half. The Penguins clamped down defensively and didn't allow a point for nearly five minutes, and they scored eight straight points as part of a larger 17-6 spurt to take a 33-26 lead.
Green started the run with a bucket at the 9:14 mark, and he scored again with 6:35 remaining to give the Penguins the lead at 22-20. Myles Hunter hit a 3 with 2:34 left to cap the 17-6 spurt, and YSU's largest lead of the half came on Green's layup with 1:21 on the clock. The Penguins led 39-32 at halftime.
The Vikings got as close as 48-46 on a Deante Johnson dunk just over five minutes into the second half, but the Penguins went on a 16-3 run to take a 64-49 lead. Rush capped the run with a 3-pointer at the 10:24 mark, which brought his career total to 999.
Cleveland State trimmed the deficit down to 67-61 with less than seven minutes remaining, but John Lovelace Jr. converted a three-point play with 6:20 on the clock to push the lead back to nine. The Vikings got within five twice, but the Penguins pulled away with a 10-2 burst. Nelson had an alley-oop dunk from Lovelace to give YSU a double-digit lead at 77-67, and Cohill scored the final four points of the run.
Rush reached his career milestone by making three free throws with 10.8 seconds remaining.
Both teams shot better than 53% in the game as Youngstown State made 56.6% from the field and Cleveland State shot 53.7%. YSU had an 8-3 edge from beyond the arc and a 17-10 advantage at the free-throw line.
The Penguins host Purdue Fort Wayne, Saturday, Dec. 31. Tipoff is set for 2:45 p.m. at Beeghly Center.
