Correspondent photo / Robert Hayes YSU sophomore Myles Hunter takes a shot during the first half of Youngstown State’s matchup with West Virginia Wednesday night in Morgantown, WV. Hunter scored 9 points on 4-of-7 shooting from the field in the Penguins’ 82-52 loss.

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — The pressure from West Virginia’s defense just kept mounting, and before long, it became too much.

Youngstown State gave the Mountaineers everything it had for a half, trailing by just one in a defensive struggle. But a full-court press and second-half surge offensively from West Virginia proved to be insurmountable for the Penguins in an 82-52 loss Wednesday night at the WVU Coliseum.

The loss snaps a 5-game win streak for YSU, which now enters the holiday break at 7-4. It also marked the end of a 2-for-1 series between the programs.

“All good things come to an end. This is the end of a three-game series, and I just hope (WVU coach Bob Huggins) doesn’t call me next week for another game,” YSU head coach Jerrod Calhoun joked, before adding with a serious tone, “But our guys are frustrated. I think they know we could have played a heck of a lot better that last 20 minutes.”

YSU led for much of the first half, as West Virginia (11-1) started out cold from the field, making just one of its first 14 shots. The Penguins, however, shot just 9-of-27 before the intermission and trailed 24-23 at the break.

“I felt like at halftime we should have been up about eight. We just couldn’t make a shot,” Calhoun said.

Then came the storm, as Calhoun alluded.

West Virginia entered into a full-court press, using suffocating pressure to turn the Penguins over time and again. As the giveaways racked up for YSU, so, too, did the deficit.

Youngstown State turned the ball over on three straight possessions and still struggled even when getting into its halfcourt offense as WVU mounted an 18-4 run to push a 35-31 lead out to a 53-35 lead.

By game’s end, the Mountaineers scored 29 points off 20 YSU giveaways. That marked a season-high in the turnover department for YSU, surpassing the 17 giveaways they coughed up against SIU-Edwardsville and Westminster.

Losing point guard Shemar Rathan-Mayes in the first half didn’t help matters, by any means. The sophomore pulled down a rebound with 1:42 left in the first half before WVU’s Jalen Bridges awkwardly collided with him. He suffered what Calhoun described as an ankle sprain. There is no firm timetable on his return, though the Penguins are off until Dec. 30.

“I don’t know why (Huggins) doesn’t do it more. It’s just their mentality,” Calhoun said of WVU’s press, later adding, “They just did a great job of smothering us. We lost our point guard who’s got a lot of equity, a lot of playing time for us, so that hurt, but you got to give them credit.”

As WVU’s defense ramped up its pressure, the Mountaineer offense kicked into gear, too.

After West Virginia’s star guards Taz Sherman and Sean McNeil went a combined 0-of-6 from the field in the first half, the duo caught fire in the second.

Sherman scored 11 of his 16 points after halftime, while McNeil hit four 3-pointers in the second half to finish with a game-high 23 points.

WVU also held a sizeable advantage at the charity stripe, sinking 25-of-34 free throws to YSU’s 9-of-13 mark.

“Our whole thing was to try to stop Sean and Taz. We certainly didn’t do a good enough job of that,” Calhoun said.

The Penguins, meanwhile, never quite found their rhythm outside of a sequence here and a sequence there. YSU shot 19-of-57 from the field and just 5-of-27 from 3-point range.

Chris Shelton led YSU with 13 points, while Michael Akkuchie had 10 and Myles Hunter had nine, all of which came in the first half.

Calhoun said that the struggles on the offensive end contributed to the lapse on defense in the second half.

“The turnovers and not scoring led to some bad defense by us. I think it’s natural,” he noted. “When the ball doesn’t go in the basket, you stand over there and it doesn’t go in. It affected everything we did.”

The Penguins now have time to lick their wounds, as the players head home for the Christmas break. YSU is back in action Dec. 30 at Detroit Mercy, beginning a three-game road swing that also includes matchups with Oakland and Robert Morris.

The remainder of the schedule will be in the Horizon League. The Penguins will enter that slate at 2-0 in conference play, good for a tie in first place with Cleveland State, Oakland and Detroit Mercy.

With an eye to the future, Calhoun concluded, “This game only helped our guys. We’re obviously going up a couple levels, but it only shows you how good Oakland (who narrowly fell at WVU to open the season, 60-53) is in our league.”