The Youngstown State men's basketball team fought back from a 10-point second-half deficit to force overtime, but Milwaukee escaped with a 75-73 win on Thursday evening at Beeghly Center.
The Penguins trailed 42-32 at halftime but scored 13 straight points behind a strong defensive stretch to get back in the game. YSU led 62-56 with 5:15 remaining in the second half, but it scored just four points the rest of regulation as Milwaukee rallied to force the extra session.
Missed free throws were costly for both teams, but especially for the Penguins as they lost on Rosselli Court for the first time in 2019-20. Youngstown State missed five free throws in the final 3:08 of regulation, and it went 9-for-22 in the first 40 minutes.
With the loss, Youngstown State dropped to 11-10 overall, 4-4 in Horizon League play and 8-1 at Beeghly Center. Milwaukee evened its overall record at 10-10 and jumped the Penguins in the standings with a 5-3 conference mark.
Donel Cathcart III led Youngstown State with 19 points, and he made three of the Penguins' five 3-pointers in the game. Darius Quisenberry had 17 points and eight assists, and Naz Bohannon matched him with 17 points.
Two Panthers had double-doubles as DeAndre Abram had 19 points and 13 rebounds, and Josh Thomas posted 15 points and 11 rebounds.
Both teams blistered the nets from the field in the first six minutes. Bohannon had eight points at the first media timeout, and Cathcart's second 3-pointer of the game put YSU ahead 16-15 at the 14:50 mark of the opening half. Milwaukee followed with a basket on its next possession to go up 17-16, and the teams were a combined 15-for-17 from the field at that point.
Youngstown State scored just 16 points the rest of the half, but it still led 26-22 with 9:08 left on a Jelani Simmons 3-pointer. Milwaukee outscored the Penguins 20-6 the rest of the half and led 42-32 at halftime.
YSU committed 11 first-half turnovers, which led to a 9-0 edge in points off turnovers for the Panthers.
The first field goal for either team in the second half came just before the 17-minute mark when a Quisenberry basket made the score 42-35. The Panthers built their lead back to double digits at 46-36 with 15:51 left, and that's when Youngstown State made its 13-0 run.
Michael Akuchie started the spurt with a layup, and Bohannon tied the score with a jumper at the 12:09 mark. Akuchie's tip-in a minute later gave the Penguins their first lead of the second half at 48-46, and Bohannon's free throw upped the margin to 49-46 with 10:26 on the clock.
Milwaukee had just four points in the half in the first 9:55 of the half, but it regained the lead at 52-51 on an Abram basket with 8:46 remaining. YSU scored the next six points to go up 57-52, and Cathcart's final triple of the night gave the Penguins a 62-56 advantage with 5:15 left.
A Quisenberry layup off a steal with 3:08 on the clock put YSU ahead 64-60, but that was the Penguins' final field goal of regulation. Quisenberry missed the and-one attempt from the free-throw line, and YSU went on to miss four more free throws in regulation.
Milwaukee scored on an offensive rebound on its next possession to get within two, and Darius Roy tied the score at 64 on a driving layup with 1:50 remaining. YSU's final lead of the night came at 65-64 when Cathcart split two free throws at the 1:27 mark, and Roy scored again with 22.9 seconds left to put Milwaukee up 66-65. Cathcart was then fouled with 10 seconds left and split another pair to tie the score at 66, and Milwaukee's Amir Allen missed the front end of a one-and-one with eight seconds left. Quisenberry attempted an off-balance 3 at the end of regulation that was off the mark.
Milwaukee's Courtney Brown Jr. hit a 3-pointer off the overtime tip, and the Panthers never lost the lead. The Penguins tied the score at 71 when Akuchie went 1-for-2 from the free-throw line with 43 seconds left, but Abram scored on Milwaukee's end of the floor to make the score 73-71. Quisenberry missed a jumper on YSU's next possession, and free throws made the score 75-73 with 3.9 seconds remaining.
The Panthers denied Quisenberry defensively on the inbounds, and Akuchie missed a contested 3-pointer at the buzzer.
Youngstown State will try to split the weekend when it hosts Green Bay on Saturday at 2 p.m.
