Correspondent photo / Robert Hayes YSU senior Michael Akuchie (right) tosses up a layup within the teeth of the St. Thomas defense during the first half Friday night.

YOUNGSTOWN — As Jerrod Calhoun put it, you have to win the first one during any kind of tournament.

The head coach’s Youngstown State team did just that Friday night, overcoming a masterclass performance from 3-point range by St. Thomas to top the Tommies 79-75 in the first game of YSU’s three-day multiteam event at the Beeghly Center.

“The first one is the most important. That team is really, really good,” Calhoun said of winning and topping UST.

The Tommies (1-3) sank 50 percent of their treys in a 17-for-34 performance from beyond the arc, but YSU (2-1) used a dominant performance in the paint to counter. The Penguins outscored UST 42-16 down low.

Michael Akuchie led that charge, as he has all season, with 20 points and eight rebounds, both team highs. The fifth-year senior said he felt he had an advantage around the basket going into the game.

“Just looking at their team and their size, and knowing what I can do as far as scoring around the rim and attacking and things like that,” he said. “I think once I started getting it going inside, it started to open up other people and started to open up passing lanes where I could drive and kick to guys. I could start getting guys open.”

Akuchie also hit a pair of free throws with 6 seconds to go that put the game away at its final score. That came after he had just missed the front end of a 1-and-1 opportunity just seconds before.

Tevin Olison added 12 points, and Myles Hunter had 14. In addition, four other Penguins had at least six points.

Hunter played a season-high 26:37 in game time following an injury to Garrett Covington in the first half. With about 5:41 left before halftime, Covington suffered what Calhoun said was possibly an Achilles injury that “didn’t look good.”

Calhoun added, “Garrett going down could be a major, major loss. It’s tragic. He’s at the hospital, so we’re kind of waiting to see what the word is.”

YSU trailed 36-32 at halftime, courtesy of an 8-for-18 start from beyond the arc for UST and a choppy 13-for-31 performance from the field for the Penguins.

In the second half, however, YSU hit its groove, connecting on 20 of 29 field goals and 5 of 11 triples. Much of that improvement came by way of a renewed focus to attack the rim, as well as increased intensity defensively and on the boards. After getting outrebounded 23-15 in the first half, YSU closed that gap to 34-31 by game’s end.

“I think we finally slowed down a little bit,” Calhoun said of the adjustments. “When you’re playing a team like that, that moves it — they’re so well-coached on offense — and their movement, their cutting, their reads. They run brush cuts, they run flare screens — a lot of movement, because all five guys can shoot.”

Offensively, he credited Akuchie with settling in and scoring around the rim, which “kind of opened things up for the guys.”

Luke Chicone registered eight points, all of which came in the second half, while nine of the 10 Penguins that entered the game hit the scorebook.

“Our team is deep; our team is talented. I believe in every single guy, whether they play as many minutes as I do or they don’t. I have full confidence in every single guy whether they’re hitting or missing,” Akuchie said of the scoring balance. “That’s how we’re effective. We have a balanced scoring night, and everyone’s feeling good, everyone’s in attack mode. We’re hard to beat when we do that.”

After UST went up 38-32 with 19:37 left, the Penguins went on an 8-0 run to take a 40-38 lead.

Akuchie began the rally with a layup and then a defensive rebound, and then Hunter scored on a fastbreak to draw YSU to within a score off an Akuchie assist.

After another UST miss, Olison drove in for a game-tying layup, and then Dwayne Cohill scored two of his eight points on a drive to give YSU the lead.

From there, the teams battled back and forth. A pair of Brooks Allen free throws gave St. Thomas its final lead, a 54-52 advantage with 9:41 to go.

The Tommies were paced by Riley Miller’s 20 points, while Anders Nelson added 17.

After that trip to the stripe for UST, Chicone began heating up, scoring four of YSU’s next nine points on a pair of jumpers as the Penguins took a 61-57 advantage. Youngstown State pushed its lead to as high as six down the stretch, but never put the game completely away until Akuchie’s free throws, thanks in large part to the continued barrage from deep from the Tommies as well as some free throws.

“I tip my cap to those guys. I’m going into my 10th season as a head coach, and that’s probably as good a passing and shooting team as I’ve seen,” Calhoun said. “… They do such a good job of moving without the ball, and they take advantage of every mistake you make. To beat a team the way we did after 17 threes is almost indescribable. I give our guys a lot of credit — they stayed the course.”

YSU will face SIU-Edwardsville today at 2 p.m. The Cougars faced Niagara last night in the second game of the evening.