Penguins fend off upset-minded Detroit Mercy, 71-66
Youngstown St. advances to Horizon League semifinals
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YOUNGSTOWN -- The chase for a Horizon League championship survives for another day.
Though things didn't go Youngstown State's way for much of the evening, the Penguins kept their NCAA Tournament hopes alive Thursday in front of 5,584 fans at the Beeghly Center, as they topped visiting Detroit Mercy, 71-66, in the Horizon League Tournament quarterfinals.
With the win, YSU (24-8) advances to the semifinals Monday in Indianapolis.
"I thought our guys stayed resilient," YSU coach Jerrod Calhoun said. "It certainly was not our night, but winning teams find ways to win, and I thought we found ways to make some plays. To shoot 43 (percent) from the field and 22 (percent) from three and get outrebounded by six and win is a real testament to our guys."
Indeed, Detroit Mercy (14-19) held the lead for 27:25 of game time, while YSU was in front just 6:33. The game featured nine ties and seven lead changes. However, YSU also never let things get out of hand, trailing by no more than eight points -- a 21-13 deficit with 12:04 to go in the first half.
The Titans were in front 63-60 with 4:19 to play following a 3-pointer from Antoine Davis, and then clung to a 63-62 advantage after a pair of Dwayne Cohill free throws with 3:48 to go. However, that was UDM's final lead.
YSU took a 64-63 lead with 3:15 to go on a pair of Adrian Nelson free throws, and then Gerald Liddell tied the game at 64 by splitting a pair at the stripe.
From there, however, the Youngstown State defense stood tough. With just over two minutes to play, Davis missed a two-point jumper and then a subsequent trey after a Liddell offensive rebound, and YSU took a timeout with 1:44 to go.
Nelson sank a hook shot with 1:29 left to put YSU in front 66-64, and then the Penguins forced another miss and collected the rebound. At the other end, Cohill sank a layup in transition to put YSU up 68-64, and then Bryce McBride added a free throw to give YSU a 69-64 lead with 16 seconds to go. The Penguins held on from there for the victory.
"We were very fortunate to get out of here with the win," Calhoun said. "But we had a lot of big plays, a lot of big, winning plays down the stretch."
Nelson paced YSU with 20 points and added seven rebounds, while fellow forward Malek Green had eight points and nine boards. Brandon Rush scored 15 points, 10 of which came after halftime, while Cohill finished with 17 points.
Still, it was no easy task. Detroit Mercy held its own thanks in large part to an impressive night on the offensive glass. The Titans parlayed 17 offensive rebounds into a 14-5 advantage in second-chance scoring, and outrebounded YSU 42-36 in all.
Liddell led that charge with 13 rebounds to go with his 12 points, while Damezi Anderson had five points and eight boards.
Meanwhile, Detroit Mercy guard Antoine Davis scored 22 points on a 7-for-26 night, an inefficient night which YSU had hoped for. He fell three points shy of tying Pete Maravich's all-time scoring record of 3,667 career points.
In all, Detroit Mercy was 24-for-68 (35.3 percent) from the field and just 6-for-27 from 3-point range. That number was torpedoed by a 10-for-38 second half that also saw the Titans connect on just four of 19 triples.
"(The key was) getting the ball out of Antoine's hands," Nelson said. "He's a great player, but we know that they had other players on their team as well, so we had to make sure we got out to them on rotations. I feel like we did a better job of that in the second half."
Tempers flared during and after the game. Green and UDM's Buay Koka were assessed matching technicals in the second half, and Cohill also picked up a technical. A skirmish broke out as the teams shook hands after the game.
As Detroit Mercy exited the court, trash was thrown onto the court from the YSU student section. Ultimately, cooler heads prevailed, and the incident stopped there.
The Penguins now face Northern Kentucky on Monday in the semifinals at Indiana Farmers Coliseum. The game will tip off at 7 p.m.
"The reality of it is you're going to be judged on how you finish, and we get to go to Indy with the right to try to win two more games," Calhoun said. "So we have a lot of work to do. We have to play better. But in March, you have to survive and advance."
jwhetzel@tribtoday.com