The Youngstown State men's basketball team built a big lead and fought off a comeback attempt to beat Purdue Fort Wayne 93-85 on Wednesday evening at the Beeghly Center.

Behind three players scoring at least 20 points, the Penguins led the Mastodons by as much as 27 in the second half. Purdue Fort Wayne, which came into the contest at the top of the Horizon League standings, clawed its way back to within three with two minutes remaining before the Penguins closed out the victory by scoring 12 points in the final 90 seconds.

Brett Thompson led the Penguins with 24 points, and he set a school record by making 17 free throws. Ziggy Reid scored 23, and Brandon Rush added 20 as three YSU players scored 20 points in the same game for the first time since 2001.

DJ Burns also scored in double figures, finishing with 13 points while grabbing 11 rebounds and distributing four assists.

Youngstown State improved to 12-5 overall and 4-2 in Horizon League play, Purdue Fort Wayne dropped to 13-4 and 4-2.

Rasheed Bello led the 'Dons with 25 points, and he made 11 free throws. The teams combined to attempt 57 free throws.

The largest lead for either team was four through the first 13 minutes, and YSU's advantage was 24-23 with 8:30 left on the first-half clock. The Mastodons went 3-for-14 from the field the rest of the half, and Youngstown State went on a 21-7 run to take a 45-30 lead at halftime.

The Penguins continued to clamp down defensively and held the visitors without a field goal for more than six-and-a-half minutes to start the second half. That allowed YSU to take its largest lead of the night at 61-34 on a layup by Reid with 13:28 remaining.

Anthony Roberts' layup 11 seconds later gave the Mastodons their first field goal since the 1:49 mark of the first half, and Purdue Fort Wayne scored 16 straight points in a three-minute stretch to get right back in the game.

Reid hit a 3 to end the storm with 10:01 on the clock, and YSU maintained a lead of at least nine over the next five minutes until the Mastodons made one more push.

YSU's advantage was 75-64 after two Thompson free throws with 5:12 remaining, and Bello scored five points during a 7-0 Mastodons run that got them within 75-71 with 3:58 left. The gap closed to 81-78 when Quinton Morton-Robertson made a lay-up with 2:14 on the clock, and the Mastodons had possession with a chance to tie the score before YSU made plays down the stretch.

The Penguins got a stop defensively, and John Lovelace, Jr. found Rush in transition for a layup and foul with 1:30 left. Rush followed with a free throw, and he hit a 3-point dagger in late in the shot clock to give the Penguins an 87-79 lead with 47.6 seconds left. That triple gave him 20 points, and it gave YSU the trio of 20-point scorers.

Thompson tied the school record for free throws, which was shared by Jerome Sims (1992), Cameron Morse (2016) and Darius Quisenberry (2019), by making his 15th with 39 seconds left, and he added two more with 13 seconds on the clock.

Youngstown State made 11 3-pointers, three more than Purdue Fort Wayne, and it outscored the Mastodons 26-19 at the free-throw line.

Youngstown State will host Wright State on Friday at Beeghly Center in a game that will be nationally televised on ESPN2. The contest will begin at 9 p.m. For tickets, call (330) 941-1978 or visit YSUsports.com.