Correspondent photo / Robert Hayes. YSU senior forward Cris Carroll drives past Robert Morris defender Nikolaos Chitikoudis during the first half on Wednesday night at the UPMC Events Center in Moon Township, Pa. Carroll led the Penguins with a career-high 31 points.

MOON TOWNSHIP, Pa. — Youngstown State failed to capitalize on a career-best performance by senior forward Cris Carroll on Wednesday night.

Carroll had a career-high 31 points and six made 3-pointers, but the Penguins turned the ball over 22 times in an 80-77 overtime loss to defending Horizon League champion Robert Morris, which snapped YSU’s five-game win streak.

“Cris played great offensively — his efficiency continues to be remarkable. Thought he had it going right from the get-go,” YSU head coach Ethan Faulkner said. “Just like our entire basketball team, when we get shots, we’re scoring the ball very efficiently, shooting almost 60% from the field. But we have to do a better job of taking care of the basketball.”

Carroll’s would-be game-winning three fell off the rim at the end of regulation, and Vlad Salaridze’s 3-point attempt to tie the game at the end of overtime off a full-court pass from Carroll was left of the mark.

With the Colonials trailing by one, Ryan Prather Jr. knocked down what would be the game-winning 3-pointer from the corner with 11 seconds left in overtime.

“We scored the first basket of overtime, but had a few defensive breakdowns,” Faulkner said. “They made some big shots and big plays. The game was back and forth in overtime. That’s two very good basketball teams competing in a high-level college basketball game, and they made a few more plays than we did down the stretch.”

Carroll’s previous career high came last January at Green Bay when he scored 24 points. He shot 10-of-12 overall and was 6-for-8 from beyond the arc, while shooting 5-for-5 at the free-throw line.

He paced the Penguins’ offense in the first half with 17 points and added 12 in the second half, but was limited to just two points in overtime.

“We definitely feel disappointed with ourselves. We should have come out with the win,” Carroll said. “I knew those bigs that they had were going to play off of me, and they don’t really switch screens. So it was able to give me space when I was setting screens to get my shot off.”

YSU led by as many as 10 points in the first half, but the turnovers allowed the Colonials to hang around. By halftime, RMU had the Penguins’ lead down to four, as YSU led 36-32.

With the Penguins leading 52-47 roughly midway through the second half, Robert Morris went on a 9-0 run to take its first lead of the night, capitalizing on a four-minute scoreless stretch by YSU.

Bryson Dawkins then snapped RMU’s run with a three, which sparked YSU’s own 9-0 run to retake the lead, as the Penguins held the Colonials scoreless for five minutes.

At the end of regulation, Carroll hit a fadeaway jumper outside the paint that gave the Penguins a two-point edge with 20.5 seconds left. But RMU’s Albert Vargas got fouled and he knocked down the game-tying free throws that sent the game to overtime.

The Penguins shot 58.1% overall from the floor and 41.7% from three. But Robert Morris had 20 offensive rebounds in addition to YSU’s 22 turnovers, which gave the Colonials extra possessions and 23 more shot attempts.

“Going to be very hard to win basketball games doing that,” Faulkner said. “So we’ve gotta get that corrected, and we will.”

Dawkins and Salaridze were the other two Penguins to finish in double figures, scoring 13 and 15 points, respectively. Prather led the Colonials with 19 points, as RMU had four players score in double figures.

“The biggest thing we gotta learn from this is it has nothing to do with our effort. We played our absolute tails off in this game,” Faulkner said. “It has everything to do with our ability to execute in terms of doing the things better that we know we have to do better, and that’s not turning the basketball over and rebounding the ball.”

YSU returns home on Saturday for a non-conference test against USC-Upstate at 1 p.m. at Zidian Family Arena.