Correspondent photo / Robert Hayes. YSU guard Bryson Langdon shoots and scores during overtime on Thursday against Milwaukee. He had 20 points for the Penguins.

YOUNGSTOWN — “Basketball is a game of runs.”

It’s an adage so common that it’s become an overused cliche at this point. But nonetheless, it’s still an apt description for what transpired at the Beeghly Center on Thursday night.

At the beginning of the game, Youngstown State opened by scoring the game’s first 12 points. Then Milwaukee responded with a run to take its first lead. The same was the case at the end of the game, as the Panthers ended regulation with a run to force overtime.

But the Penguins had one last effort left in store. YSU outscored Milwaukee by 12 in overtime to hold off the Panthers 97-85 in a back-and-forth thriller at the Beeghly Center.

“It’s hard to tell our guys because most of them haven’t played Milwaukee,” head coach Jerrod Calhoun said. “Whatever their record, it’s very misleading — I don’t even look at it because BJ Freeman didn’t play a whole bunch of games. Those guys (Erik) Pratt, Elijah Jamison, and (Kentrell Pullian), those guys have been through this league. … I think us as coaches knew how dangerous they were. We got off to that really, really good start and then we let up a little bit. I think Milwaukee was resilient. You gotta give them a lot of credit.”

YSU hit three threes to open the game, and it looked like the Penguins were going to run away with things early as they raced out to a 12-0 lead.

But as Calhoun said, with the experience and scoring ability that Milwaukee has as the guard spot, they’re never out of games.

After missing each of their first five shots, the Panthers started hitting everything. By halftime, YSU trailed by six and Milwaukee was shooting 47.4% overall, which included hitting seven threes.

So at the intermission, the Penguins made the adjustment defensively.

Enter Gabe Dynes.

The 7-foot-3 freshman center, who had missed the last five games with a hand injury, was instrumental for the Penguins as they rallied back in the second half. As YSU’s safety net in the paint, Dynes blocked six shots in the second half to finish with seven for the game and ended up playing almost 30 minutes for the Penguins. It was the first time a YSU player had at least seven blocks in a game since Damian Eargle on Feb. 12, 2012.

“I missed it so much — it felt really good (out there),” Dynes said. “I just do what I do and pick up stuff on defense.”

Dynes’ presence down low was a start for YSU defensively, but the Penguins still had to worry about the perimeter with Milwaukee’s guards, especially Freeman, who ended up finishing with 24 points to lead the Panthers before fouling out in overtime.

“You try to run those guys off the line,” Calhoun said. “I thought we gave up three really easy ones in that first half. … Freeman and Pratt — they’re 6-foot-4, 6-foot-5. We tried to tell our guys, they’re going to rock you with one or two dribbles and they’re great shooting off the bounce. Not many kids can do that at the mid-major level.

“Changing to a bigger lineup, getting them to see some length on the ball, then when we switched or we strung the ball screen out or we dropped with Gabe — just trying to give them something different to counter what (Milwaukee coach) Bart (Lundy) was trying to do. He’s a great offensive coach. … So our defense wasn’t good enough, but Milwaukee’s pretty good offensively.”

As the defense picked up in the second half for the Penguins, so did the offense.

Ziggy Reid, who had just six points at halftime, scored 22 points in the second half and overtime periods to finish with 28 to lead all scorers.

“My teammates were just looking for me more,” Reid said. “I told them in the locker room (at halftime): ‘I’m open.’ They were like, ‘I got you.’ So I just moved in the flow of the offense, found the open spots, got into my spots and it worked out for me.”

Correspondent photo / Robert Hayes. YSU forward Ziggy Reid drives and scores two of his game-high 28 points during the second half on Thursday against Milwaukee.

Bryson Langdon and Brett Thompson came alive in the second half, too. Thompson scored 11 points after halftime to finish with 20, while Langdon had 16 of his 20 points in the second half and in overtime.

“We just controlled the game, and played at our pace,” Langdon said. “Once we got back in the game and took the lead, now we’re in control. So then we could dictate the pace and run what we want to run instead of just pushing the ball up the court.”

Due to the Penguins’ defense, Milwaukee was scoreless from about the 10-minute mark to the six-minute mark in the second half. But the Panthers weren’t quite out of gas yet.

With 4:22 to go, YSU had a 10-point lead. However, the Panthers went on a 14-4 run at the end of regulation to force overtime. After a jump-ball tie up, Milwaukee even had a chance to win in regulation, but Freeman’s shot fell short.

In overtime, YSU quickly scored the first two baskets and ended up outscoring the Panthers 20-8 in the extra period to finally seal the victory.

“Anyone can beat anyone on any given night. It’s probably fun for you guys,” Calhoun said with a smile. “It’s probably fun for the 3,000 fans that are out there. It’s gotta be wild to watch. But sometimes, when you’re in those situations, I just kept saying in my head, we gotta do more situational stuff. You run out of time this time of year for practice, whether it’s sideline outs, baseline outs, press breakers, ball screen coverage, ball screen offense, making reads — it comes down to which team can execute, and that’s what this league is about.”

With the win, YSU sets up a huge Saturday game against Horizon League-leaders Green Bay. Tip is at 1:30 p.m. at the Beeghly Center.

nmadhavan@tribtoday.com