Correspondent photo / Robert Hayes YSU’s Cris Carroll (left) drives to the basket with Detroit Mercy’s Lance Stone on defense. Carroll paced the Penguins with 15 points in a 73-68 loss to the Titans.

YOUNGSTOWN — The Youngstown State men’s basketball team looked like a group that hadn’t played in over a week.

After a holiday layoff, the Penguins returned to Beeghly Center on Monday. But not a lot went well for them as they fell to the Titans 73-68.

The Penguins (8-6, 2-2 Horizon League) hadn’t played since topping USC-Upstate on Dec. 20.

“I thought our execution was poor in the first half,” YSU head coach Ethan Faulkner said. “I grade our offense not necessarily on makes and misses, but are we making the right basketball play, are we shooting the right shots, are we executing our actions the way that they are supposed to be executed in terms of timing, in terms of pace, in terms of screen quality, pass quality? All those things were not very good in the first half.”

There was a lid on the basket for both teams to start the game. They combined to go 6 for 24, with the Penguins shooting 3 for 14 by the 11:16 mark of the first half.

The shooting woes continued throughout the first for the Penguins. They entered the locker room trailing 32-25, their lowest first-half point total so far this season.

YSU finally got some shots to fall less than five minutes into the second half. The Penguins went on a 13-0 run to cut the deficit to 51-42, but the Titans responded to balloon their lead back up to 16 with 6:38 to play.

The Penguins fought their way back to within striking distance again in the closing moments as Rontavious Blackshear sank a three with 36 seconds to play, but Detroit Mercy’s Orlando Lovejoy converted a pair of free throws to push the game out of reach.

“All respect to (the Titans), but this is not the type of Youngstown basketball that we’ve been playing the past 13, 14 games,” YSU’s Bryson Dawkins said.

“The second half, going back in, everybody just got back on the same page. A lot of people missed open shots – I think that was frustrating for everybody else too – but just getting back on the same page, just being connected. That’s mainly what it comes down to, just staying connected.”

The Penguins ended the night with a 22-for-67 shooting effort (32.8%), including 10-of-38 shooting from beyond the 3-point line.

Dawkins led the Penguins with 14 points and four rebounds. Jason Nelson and Blackshear each scored 12 points, with Nelson also pulling down three boards, and Vladimer Salaridze tallied three points with a team-high eight rebounds.

Lovejoy led all scorers with 22 points, and Keshawn Fisher added 15 points and seven rebounds for the Titans (6-7, 3-1).

“Much of this game was really just a lack of execution in terms of what we were trying to do, and that’s on me to get fixed,” Faulkner said.

YSU will look to get back on track on New Year’s Day when Oakland comes to town.

The Golden Grizzlies have lost three of their last four, including an 88-73 defeat at the hands of Wright State on Monday.