The Youngstown State men's basketball team added to its end-of-season highlight video with high-flying dunks from several players and topped Bethany 107-70 at the Beeghly Center on Thursday evening.
The Penguins improved to 8-3 overall and won for the fifth straight game with the 37-point victory over the Division III opponent from West Virginia that plays in the Presidents' Athletic Conference. Bethany dropped to 4-7 with the loss.
In his first start of the season, YSU's John Lovelace, Jr. scored 23 points on just 15 field-goal attempts while adding nine rebounds, three assists and three steals in 23 minutes. He was joined in double figures by Brett Thompson (15 points), Gabe Dynes (14), Brandon Rush (12) and EJ Farmer (12). Dynes added 10 rebounds to his 14 points for his first career double-double, and he and Jaylen Bates both blocked three shots.
Cole Matthews scored 15 points and made five of Bethany's 12 3-pointers.
Bethany scored on its first three possessions and made two 3-pointers in the process, and it held an 8-5 advantage 90 seconds into the game. Thompson, Lovelace, Jr. and Rush scored six straight points for the Penguins to give the home team an 11-8 lead, and YSU held the upper hand the rest of the night.
An alley-oop off the backboard from Thompson to Bates gave the Penguins their first double-digit lead of the night at 26-15 with 10:02 on the clock, and Lovelace, Jr. reached double figures on a breakaway dunk at the 4:32 mark that gave YSU a 45-28 lead. The margin grew to 20 on another Lovelace, Jr. basket that gave him 16 first-half points, and the score was 54-39 at halftime.
Bethany made nine 3-pointers in 20 attempts in the first half, but the Bison, who were playing their fourth game in the last five days, went 3-for-18 from long distance in the second half. That allowed the Penguins to grow their lead over the final 20 minutes.
Lovelace, Jr. hit the 20-point mark with another dunk with 12:24 left in the second half that gave YSU a 75-47 lead. The Penguins' largest lead of the night was 41 points at 98-57 when Imanuel Zorgvol's jumper capped a 10-0 run with 6:13 left. A thunderous breakaway dunk for Rush got the Penguins to triple digits at the 4:35 mark, and YSU added seven more to its total with a dunk by Zorgvol, a 3-pointer by Tommy Fryda and a dunk by Dynes. The Penguins were credited with nine dunks on the night.
Youngstown State shot 60% from the field, making 45 of its 75 attempts overall and 37-of-51 inside the arc. All 10 Penguins who played found the scoring column, and YSU doubled up the Bison in rebounding at 56-28. The Penguins scored 72 points in the paint.
Youngstown State will continue its four-game homestand on Monday by hosting Westminster at 6:30 p.m. The game against the Titans will be broadcast live on 570 WKBN and ESPN+.
