Youngstown, Ohio — Nico Galette and Ty Harper caught fire in the second half to lead Youngstown State to a 72-67 victory over Purdue Fort Wayne on Thursday in the quarterfinals of the 2025 Barbasol Horizon League Men's Basketball Championship.
Youngstown State will face No. 2 seed Cleveland State, Monday, March 10. Tipoff is slated for 9:30 p.m. at Corteva Coliseum at the Fairgrounds in Indianapolis, Ind. The game will be televised on ESPN2 and aired on 570 WKBN. Youngstown State improved to 20-12 and have won at least 20 games for three straight seasons, a first in the program's history.
Galette finished with a game-high 22 points while grabbing 10 rebounds for his eighth double-double, and Harper scored 20 points. They combined to make five 3-pointers in the second half to give YSU a big boost after the Penguins went 0-for-15 from long distance in a low-scoring first half. Junior Cris Carroll recorded his third double-double of the season with 11 points and tied a career high with 12 boards.
Quinton Morton-Robertson led Purdue Fort Wayne with 21 points, and he made two 3-pointers in the final minute to give the Mastodons a chance to cap a huge rally.
Harper scored 11 straight points to spark the Penguins to a 59-44 lead with four minutes left, but the Mastodons scored the next nine points to get within 59-53. Purdue Fort Wayne got as close as 68-67 with 8.8 seconds remaining, but Cris Carroll made two clutch free throws with 8.4 on the clock to up the margin back to three.
Purdue Fort Wayne's Rasheed Bello was fouled purposely with 6.1 seconds left, and he missed both attempts. The second was corraled by the Mastodons, and leading scorer Jalen Jackson had an open look come up short. Carroll was fouled again with 0.8 seconds left, and he put the game out of reach by making two more free throws.
Youngstown State finished 25-for-31 from the free-throw line, and it held a huge rebounding advantage at 49-33.
Youngstown State got off to a cold start connecting on just one of its first 12 shots and the Mastodons built a 10-3 lead.
A Gabe Dynes ally-oop from Cris Carrol trimmed the lead to 13-7, but Purdue Fort Wayne hit a 3-pointer to take a 16-7 lead.
An 8-0 YSU run sparked by a basket by Wilkerson, two free throws by Maxey, a layup by Galette and a jumper by Harper cut the Mastodon advantage to 16-15 at the 7:44 mark.
Galette tied the game at 17-17 with a turnaround jumper and Harper retied the game at 19-19 with a pair of free throws.
The Mastodons scored the next five points to regain a 24-19 after a 3 by Corey Hadnot and two free throws by Chandler Cuthrell.
A driving layup by Nelson and two Galette free throws cut the lead to 24-23, and the Penguins took their first lead of the game, 26-24, after a Christian Kirkland free throw and a Galette put back with 50 seconds before the half.
Rasheed Bello hit jumper with 31 seconds left and the teams entered the locker room deadlocked at 26-26.
