Correspondent photo / Robert Hayes. YSU fifth-year senior Brandon Rush walks off the court for the final time as a Penguin. YSU was eliminated 82-70 by Cleveland State in the Horizon League tournament quarterfinals.

YOUNGSTOWN — Cleveland State had an answer for everything Youngstown State threw at it.

If the Penguins hit a three, the Vikings hit a three.

If YSU went on a run, CSU went on a run of its own.

Anytime the Penguins got a key defensive stop or forced a turnover, the Vikings would return the favor.

Throughout the night, Cleveland State continuously kept YSU at arm’s length, as the Vikings ended the Penguins’ season 82-70 in the quarterfinals of the Horizon League tournament on Thursday night at the Beeghly Center.

“We looked like a team that hadn’t played basketball in a long time,” Penguins head coach Jerrod Calhoun said. “Looking back at it, a 10-day (layoff) is probably too long for a team to be off. We looked very lethargic. … We looked like a team that hadn’t played basketball in eight or nine days, so maybe that had something to do with it.”

The Penguins end their season 22-10 overall, with the second-most wins in Division I program history, and finished second in the Horizon League standings. Thursday’s loss also marked the final career games for YSU’s five fifth-year seniors: Brandon Rush, DJ Burns, Brett Thompson, Ziggy Reid and Bryson Langdon.

“I appreciate our seniors — bringing in 11 new players is very difficult,” Calhoun said. “Total rebuild, but to win 22 games, finish 22-10 — but it’s not the ending that we wanted. … You gotta give Cleveland State credit. You gotta be able to win and handle it, and you gotta be able to lose and handle it, and I tip my cap to those guys. They played really good.”

Without leading scorer and All-Horizon League First Teamer Tristan Enaruna, the Vikings played inspired basketball.

Even without Enaruna’s 20 points per game, Cleveland State still scored 82 points and shot 48.3% overall and 50.0% from beyond the arc. The Vikings finished with four players in double figures, led by 20 points from Chase Robinson off the bench.

“Just really proud of our guys’ total team effort being down a man,” Vikings head coach Daniyal Robinson said. “They came out and were able to sustain the game plan — that was our most physical game that we played all year long. … It was just the guys being locked in. (YSU) plays a tough matchup zone, and they were switching back-and-forth. We were able to get deep in the clock and the guys were able to take what the defense gave them and we had stretches where some of our veteran guys made big plays.”

Both teams started off the game sizzling from the floor, combining to go 15-for-26 in the first few minutes, but Cleveland State was able to sustain that hot shooting, and took a six-point lead into halftime.

Throughout the second half, YSU chipped away and chipped away, but the Penguins were never able to cut the deficit any closer than four points.

It didn’t help that YSU had its worst three-point shooting night since the season opening loss against Louisiana. In that game, the Penguins shot 2-for-23 (8.7%) from beyond the arc. Against the Vikings, YSU was 5-for-31 (16.1%) from deep.

Calhoun said after the game that the long layoff may have contributed to YSU’s poor shooting performance.

“Just didn’t go in. It was a total nightmare shooting the ball, and trying to guard was a nightmare,” Calhoun said.

Burns led the Penguins with his 22nd double-double of the season, scoring 17 points and pulling down 18 boards. Rush finished with 15 points for YSU, while Langdon scored 10.

Now, the Penguins head into the offseason with just as many questions as they had after last season.

YSU has a large group of upperclassmen finishing out their careers, but in today’s world of college basketball, with the transfer portal, it’s no guarantee that the underclassmen that are on the roster today will still be there by the start of next season.

“We’ll take 24 hours and then it’s time to get to work,” Calhoun said. “We gotta probably get six or seven guys. We’ll meet with every player on Monday, and it’s off to the races. There’s no time to waste. We gotta get into the portal and maybe find one more high school guy, and see who’s coming back and who’s transferring. It’s portal season — gotta get excited about it.”

Have an interesting story? Contact Neel Madhavan by email at nmadhavan@tribtoday.com. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, @NeelMadhavan.