The Youngstown State men's basketball team erased a 10-point second-half deficit before a driving layup from Robert Morris in the final seconds of the game lifted the Colonials to a 72-70 victory over the Penguins on Wednesday evening at Zidian Family Arena at Beeghly Center.

The Penguins, who trailed 48-38 early in the second half, evened the score at 70-70 on a second-chance layup by Ty Harper with six seconds left. However, RMU's Kam Woods took the ball the length of the floor for a driving layup with two seconds remaining to lift the visitors to a two-point win.

Youngstown State falls to 12-9 overall and 7-4 in Horizon League play while Robert Morris improves to 14-7 overall and 6-4 in league action. The Colonials avenged a loss to the Penguins earlier this season in Moon Township, Pa., to split the regular season series between the teams.

Juwan Maxey paced the Penguins with a career-high 22 points, shooting 7-for-10 from the field, 3-for-5 from 3-point range and 5-for-6 from the free-throw line. The junior guard scored 12 consecutive YSU points in the second half as the Guins made their comeback attempt. Harper was also in double figures with 15 points while connecting on three 3-pointers and grabbing a team-high five rebounds. Gabe Dynes added eight points on 4-for-4 shooting, four rebounds and six blocked shots off the bench.

Youngstown State shot better than 49 percent from the field while going 8-for-26 from beyond the arc for the game. Robert Morris shot almost 43 percent overall and over 35 percent from distance while grabbing 17 offensive rebounds that led to 20 second-chance points. The Colonials had four players score in double figures, led by Woods, who recorded 16 of his 17 points over the final 20 minutes of action.

After leading by as many as six points in the first half, YSU fell behind 40-36 at the intermission. Robert Morris began the second half with an 8-2 run to push its lead to double digits for the first time at 48-38. RMU's Kam Woods got a steal and an ensuing layup to force a YSU timeout with 18:27 remaining in the contest.

An old-fashioned three-point play by David Wilkerson cut YSU's deficit to 48-41, and a 3-pointer from EJ Farmer brought the Guins within 50-44 with 16:04 remaining. With the Colonials leading 56-49, Harper threw down a thunderous baseline dunk to create a five-point differential again at 56-51 with 12:22 on the second-half clock. A fadeaway 3-pointer by Woods at the end of the shot clock gave RMU a 59-51 edge with just over 10 minutes left in the second half. A layup by Maxey made the score 59-53, and Maxey proceeded to connect on a corner triple to reduce RMU's lead to 59-56 with 9:16 to play.

The Colonials extended their lead back to six points at 62-56 before a three-point play by Maxey closed the gap to three points again at 62-59 with seven minutes to go in the second half.  Robert Morris rebuilt a six-point lead at 67-61 and again at 69-63 with less than three minutes remaining. The Guins closed to within four at 69-65, and another 3-pointer by Maxey brought the home team within 69-68 with 1:16 to play. Woods made one of two free throws with 18 seconds remaining to give RMU a 70-68 edge before Harper's layup tied the game at 70-70 in the final moments.

The Penguins got their first points and took their first lead of the night on a 3-pointer from Cris Carroll a minute-and-a-half into the contest, and they would proceed to hold the lead for more than 14 minutes in an opening half of action that featured four lead changes and two ties. Carroll converted on a jump shot to give YSU a 15-10 lead with 12:23 remaining in the first half. The Colonials proceeded to put together a 9-2 run to take a brief 19-17 lead before the Penguins went on an 8-0 run of their own to take their largest lead of the half at 25-19.

After falling behind by six points, Robert Morris responded with a 16-7 spurt to take a 35-32 advantage with 3:14 left to go before halftime. The Colonials carried their largest lead of the first half into the locker room as they held a 40-36 advantage at the break. RMU missed each of its first six 3-point attempts before sinking four of its next five shots from long range in the first half.

Youngstown State will continue its four-game homestand on Friday at 11 a.m. when it hosts Penn State-Shenango in non-conference action. It will be a special School Field Trip Game with approximately one thousand area elementary students in attendance. The game will be broadcast live on 570 WKBN and ESPN+.