Correspondent photo / Robert Hayes. YSU's Siem Uijtendaal eyes and shoots his first made three-pointer of the second half against Cleveland State on Monday night at Corteva Coliseum in Indianapolis. His team-high 13 points helped the Penguins earn a 56-54 victory over the Vikings in the Horizon League tournament semifinal.

INDIANAPOLIS — Youngstown State’s regular season finale against Northern Kentucky served as a wakeup call for the Penguins defensively.

In that game, YSU gave up 88 points to the Norse, its second-most points allowed in a conference game this season.

Since then, the Penguins’ defense has risen to another level, which helped the team overcome back-to-back lackluster shooting performances.

They did it in the quarterfinal win against Purdue Fort Wayne last week, and then again late Monday night in the semifinal against Cleveland State, as YSU put the clamps on the Vikings in a 56-54 victory at Corteva Coliseum in Indianapolis.

“I told our guys, if we’re not the best defensive team in the league, we don’t have a chance to win this,” head coach Ethan Faulkner said. “I think that’s kind of held true as we went forward. We were really good in the second half defensively against Fort Wayne, and I thought for 40 minutes we were incredible with our effort and our toughness in executing our defensive gameplan (against CSU).

YSU, which struggled mightily offensively, shooting just 36% overall, held the Vikings to 41.3% shooting, while weathering CSU’s 8-for-12 mark from beyond the 3-point arc.

“We wanted to look at the stat sheet after the game, and if we lost, we wanted it to be because they hit threes,” Faulkner said. “We really wanted to protect the paint, shrink the floor and rebound the basketball at a high level. To their credit, they made eight (threes). But we felt like if we could take away the paint from them, take away the free-throw line, we’d have a great chance to win the game.”

YSU advances to the Horizon League championship game for the first time in program history on Tuesday night, where it will face Robert Morris, which held off Oakland 79-76 in overtime in the first semifinal on Monday.

The Penguins are just 40 minutes away from their first Division I NCAA tournament bid in program history.

“Going back to when Coach (Jerrod) Calhoun first got here and I first got here with him, that’s something that we’ve talked about with every team that we’ve had — having the chance to get here, and we’re 40 minutes away from that,” Faulkner said. “We’ve done so much of the legwork to have a chance to get to the NCAA tournament for the first time, it’d be special if we could do it. Not just for our team — it’d certainly be special for our team — but for our university and for our community.

“The support we have at Youngstown State from our athletics department and from our community, it’s unique. It’s special. And hopefully, we get a chance to go to the NCAA tournament for our team and for them.”

As was the case during the regular season meetings between YSU and CSU, the defenses reigned supreme, especially at the start, as they combined to open the game 2-for-13 from the floor.

YSU’s defense held the Vikings to two points in the first eight minutes of the game, which included a nearly six-minute scoreless stretch. But the Penguins were unable to capitalize on the offensive end after starting 1-for-11 overall and 3-for-8 from the free-throw line.

By halftime, YSU clung to a one-point lead after CSU’s Tahj Staveskie drained a three to beat the buzzer.

Cleveland State finally started to knock down shots to start the second half, as the VIkings opened on an 8-0 run. But YSU clawed its way back thanks to 11 straight points from Siem Uijtendaal.

“My teammates are always looking for me, so I’m always just trying to find an open gap somewhere, trying to make some eye contact with my teammates,” Uijtendaal said. “They trust me. They pass me the ball, and if I’m open, then I need to shoot that. That’s what I gotta do.”

Uijtendaal, who transferred to Youngstown for his final season of eligibility after being Canisius’ second-leading scorer last year, has been searching for consistency with his scoring touch all season.

He led the Penguins with 13 points on Monday, all of them coming in the second half. Without Uijtendaal, YSU would likely be headed home.

“I think it’s a credit to Siem — he just continues to show up and work every day,” Faulkner said. “Talk about a guy that started at Canisius last year … played all the minutes. Then he comes here, and up until EJ (Farmer’s) injury, he wasn’t a starter. Maybe he hasn’t had the year offensively that he’s wanted, but he just continues to show up every day and punch the clock and put the work in. In a moment like this, you look back on all those times that you do that, and it pays off.”

With under a minute to go, the Penguins trailed the Vikings by two. Jason Nelson drove down the baseline and kicked out a pass to Ty Harper in the far corner, who knocked down the go-ahead 3-pointer while getting fouled.

Harper knocked down the free throw to give YSU a two-point lead. Then the Penguins put together stops on three separate possessions by the Vikings to close out the victory.

“Everything comes down to getting stops, so when we stay together to get stops, anything can happen,” Harper said. “Since the beginning of the season, we knew that we were going to face adversity. So staying together, being connected and in communication with each other, we can get through anything. That was the biggest key, the communication on both ends of the floor.”

YSU and Robert Morris tip at 7 p.m. Tuesday in Indianapolis. for a spot in the NCAA tournament.