YOUNGSTOWN — With a chance to build off the momentum from its win earlier this week, Youngstown State let a golden opportunity slip away on Saturday.
Execution in tight, late-game situations continues to be an issue for the Penguins, as Stevie Elam’s driving layup with eight seconds left helped lift Milwaukee past YSU 65-64 at Zidian Family Arena.
“It’s a culmination of 40 minutes of basketball, the last possession of the game wasn’t the one that beat us,” head coach Ethan Faulkner said. “Did not play well enough offensively. I thought we had some spurts where we were pretty good defensively and we had them in the half court. I thought they struggled to score, but they scored 21 points off our turnovers. Hard to overcome that in a one-point game.”
The loss is the Penguins’ fifth by one-possession in Horizon League play and YSU is now 1-7 in games decided by five points or less this season.
The Penguins (10-12, 3-8 Horizon) started fast and led by 11 with 3:17 left in the first half. But then they started getting sloppy with the ball and Milwaukee (9-13, 5-6 Horizon) went on a 14-1 run and ended the half on a buzzer-beating three by Isaiah Dorceus that gave the Panthers a 32-30 lead at the break.
“We played too casual,” Faulkner said. “That’s what I told our guys in the locker room. We got up and we relaxed.”
After trailing most of the second half, YSU finally tied the game at 54 with 4:26 to go thanks to six points from Rich Rolf and a layup by Jaiden Haynes.
From there, the Penguins pulled ahead, as both teams exchanged baskets and free throws over the next couple minutes. A pair of three-point plays by Cris Carroll and Jason Nelson gave YSU a one-point lead with about 30 seconds left after a layup by Dorceus.
“I thought we got some stops, which obviously contributed to that,” Faulkner said. “Ran a little bit better offense. I thought Rich got us some second chances there, made some good plays at the rim. Cris’ and-1 was a big play, (Jason)’s and-1 was a big play. Just thought we had a little bit better offensive flow.”
With just a couple seconds between the game and shot clock, the Penguins could have bled the clock down to try to draw a foul from the Panthers. But instead, Nelson’s lobbed pass to a cutting Bryson Dawkins at the basket was deflected and stolen away by Elam, who promptly raced up the floor and finished at the rim on the other end.
Carroll took the inbounds pass and pushed up the court, but his mid-range jumper from along the baseline fell off the rim in the final seconds as Milwaukee escaped with the win.
“They went 1-3-1, we went to our 1-3-1 offense,” Faulkner said. “They did a good job. Probably should have called timeout. I had one left. I thought we had an advantage, so I didn’t call it. It was the same thing on the last play with Cris going downhill in transition. Didn’t know if we could get anything better than that out of a timeout. They could obviously go to a different defense as well, so I was going to let them play. But in retrospect, should have called a timeout when they went 1-3-1.”
YSU’s turnover on the second-to-last possession was a microcosm of its battle with turnovers all afternoon. The Penguins turned the ball over 16 times, with 13 of them coming on steals by the Panthers.
Milwaukee was aggressive in how it pressured the ball, getting its hands in passing lanes and causing deflections that led to 21 points off those turnovers.
“Systematically, they were switching a lot of things, which led to them pressuring us up to half court,” Rolf said. “So we just gotta handle their pressure and not turn the ball over; just be stronger with the ball.”
The Panthers had four players finish in double figures, led by Amar Aguillard’s 16 points.
Carroll paced the Penguins with 19 points, while Rolf added 14 points and nine rebounds. Rolf battled foul trouble for most of the night, finishing with four personal fouls, a technical for hanging on the rim after a dunk and a flagrant-1 for excessive contact while defending near the rim.
Tyler Robinett missed both games this week with an ongoing leg injury, while Vlad Salaridze was again absent due to a “coach’s decision.”
YSU now has almost a week until its next game at home against IU Indy on Jan. 30 at 6:30 p.m.
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