Indianapolis, Ind. – The Youngstown State men's basketball team put forth a valiant second-half effort, but came up short dropping a 75-63 contest to Northern Kentucky on Monday night in the semifinals of the 2023 Barbasol Horizon League Men's Basketball Championship at Farmers Coliseum.
The top-seeded Penguins fall to 24-9 overall while No. 4 Northern Kentucky improves to 21-12 and will play for the championship tomorrow night against either Cleveland State or Milwaukee.
Despite the defeat, Youngstown State will earn an automatic bid to the National Invitational Tournament for the first time in program history by virtue of claiming their first-ever regular-season Horizon League title. YSU will learn its opponent during the NIT Selection Show, which is the evening on Sunday, March 12.
Leading the Penguins in scoring was Adrian Nelson who had 17 points while grabbing 13 rebounds. Dwayne Cohill had 16 points before fouling out with 5:40 remaining in the contest. Malek Green was the only other Guin in double figures with 10 points.
Trailing by 22 points early in the second half, the Guins roared back to get within four points at the 4:44 mark, but could get no closer.
At the 11:35 mark, the Guins trailed 52-37 before holding NKU scoreless for the next 4:32 and cutting the deficit to 52-44 on scoop shot in the lane by Cohill. Down 57-49, Garrett Covington grabbed a rebound and dished it to an open Nelson for two points and on the next possession, Bryce McBride was fouled on a dribble and made two free throws with 4:44 remaining. At that point, NKU scored six straight points to push its lead up to 10.
For the game, YSU was 24-of-53 from the field (45 percent) while holding the Norse to just 37 percent shooting as it made just 22 field goals. For the game, Youngstown State was whistled for a season-high 26 fouls (previous high was 24 at Green Bay on Jan. 19). NKU attempted 38 free throws in the contest, the most YSU had allowed in a game this season was 31 which was at Cleveland State on Feb. 12. The Penguins attempted just 13 free throws while NKU made 28 in the 13-point win.
In the first half, YSU was able to get off to a decent start taking three early leads, but NKU opened up some breathing room after the Guins went in front 7-6 on a 3-pointer by McBride. The Norse scored seven straight points seizing a 13-7 lead with just over 12 minutes left in the first half.
Trailing, 17-9, YSU scored five straight points on a Cohill bucket and 3-pointer by Rush to close within three with 9:31 remaining in the half. Over the course of the next three minutes and 13 seconds, the Norse scored eight consecutive points building a 25-14 advantage by the 6:18 mark.
The lead grew to 30-16 at the 5:01 mark, before the Guins closed within 10 at 31-21 when Green fought through the NKU defense for a layup. At the break, the Norse led 40-25.
In the first half, NKU had a large advantage in free throw attempts and makes. The Norse were 12-of-16 from the free-throw line while the Guins shot just six, making five. From the field, YSU was 9-of-23 (39.1 percent) while Northern Kentucky made 13-of-31 attempts (41.9 percent). The Norse had just one turnover in the first 20 minutes.
