Correspondent photo / Robert Hayes Youngstown State's Dwayne Cohill (5) puts in a layup during the first half of YSU's 77-73 win over Oakland.

YOUNGSTOWN — With a national audience tuned in and a massive Horizon League contest against Oakland at hand, Dwayne Cohill wanted to leave his mark.

Did he ever.

With YSU leading by just one point at halftime, Cohill took the game over in the second stanza, pouring in 23 of his team-high 25 points to lead the Penguins to a thrilling 77-73 victory over the Golden Grizzlies on ESPN2 on Friday night in a packed Beeghly Center.

“It was a big game for us, you know, finally getting a national TV game here in Youngstown,” Cohill said after the win. “So I just wanted to make sure I made my presence known around the world with everybody watching the game. My teammates were just telling me, ‘I know you only have two points, but stay in it. I know you got a lot of turnovers, just stay confident. We’re going to get you the ball, and we believe in you.'”

The senior made good on his teammates’ faith. After posting two points and four turnovers in the first half, Cohill went 9-for-12 out of halftime and sank five shots from 3-point range as YSU (16-6, 8-3 Horizon League) grew its lead to as large as nine before fending off a late rally by the Golden Grizzlies (9-13, 7-4 Horizon League).

The last of Cohill’s triples gave Youngstown State that nine-point lead. With the shot clock running down, Cohill pump faked an Oakland defender, took a dribble up to the arc and drilled his open look to send the YSU faithful into pandemonium as the Penguins nabbed a 74-65 advantage with 2:28 to play.

Along with those treys, the Dayton transfer also attacked the rim well, thanks in part to an adjustment YSU coach Jerrod Calhoun made at halftime to counter Oakland’s unique zone defense by putting Cohill into more isolations.

“We made a few adjustments where Dwanye could just isolate and go one-on-one,” Calhoun noted. “I thought when we went to our rover action, putting him down low — we probably should have done that a lot earlier in the game — where he was floating around and just kind of being a basketball player in this game. There’s some coach, some adjusting, but (Oakland) plays so high up that you have to make reads and make the right pass and having Bryce (McBride) and Dwayne doing that was really good.”

McBride added eight points and — perhaps more importantly — six assists in the win, and YSU posted 21 helpers to just 11 turnovers on the night. Adrian Nelson tallied 11 points and nine rebounds, while Malek Green chipped in 10 points and four rebounds. Brandon Rush scored 12 points.

“Just trying to make sure not to overthink and not making the extra pass or taking too many dribbles,” Cohill said of attacking OU’s defense. “If we got the open shot, take it, and just trying to get into the middle of that defense. We noticed it was soft on the inside if we got the ball in there, and then just kicking the ball out, trying to find the open guy. I think we did a good job of that as a team.”

After YSU took that 74-65 lead, Oakland made one last push. Jalen Moore drew a foul and sank both free throws to clip the Penguins’ advantage to seven, and then Blake Lampman followed with a 3-pointer. Cohill sank a floater to push YSU’s lead back out to 76-70, before Rocket Watts drew a foul on a 3-point shot and made all three free throws to bring the game back to three points.

However, a potential game-tying trey from Moore on Oakland’s penultimate possession missed, and Green hit the front end of a 1-and-1 at the other end to put the game away.

Moore was a thorn in YSU’s side the entire night. The guard hit five of his own 3-pointers and led all scorers with 27 points. Lampman added nine points, as did Watts, and Keaton Hervey had 12. As a team, OU shot 12-of-24 from deep.

That sharpshooting lasted from start to finish. OU was 7-for-10 from deep by halftime, as YSU held a narrow 39-38 advantage.

“I was shocked. I told our staff — we watch all the clips — and I thought our defense was really bad in the first half,” Calhoun said. “We gave up (37 points), we just looked slow on our feet, and we looked like we were playing on our heels. Give Oakland credit. And we couldn’t make a three, and we were up one. So I felt pretty good, and I thought our kids stayed the course.”

Meanwhile, YSU managed a 30-21 rebounding advantage, which gave the Penguins a 16-8 advantage in second-chance points.

“I heard an NBA coach say a couple weeks ago — and he’s exactly right — that the first shot doesn’t beat you. It’s the second shot,” Calhoun said, later adding, “So it’s just constantly telling your guys to stay disciplined, put your body on them in a one-shot game. We just made a couple more plays than them, but Oakland is going to be right there. They’re going to be right in that top five, they’re really good.”

Youngstown State’s campaign continues Sunday against Detroit Mercy.

jwhetzel@tribtoday.com