by The Youngstown State Penguins Men’s Basketball Team traveled west on the Ohio State Turnpike to play Cleveland State at the Wolstein Center on Friday night. The CSU Vikings came into the game with an 11-4 record overall, 7-1 in Horizon play, and 9 and 2 at home. Also the Vikings have already beaten the Penguins this year, so CSU came into the game the clear favorite. Youngstown State had different ideas and they brought their A game to the arena on Friday.
The first half started slowly with both squads struggling with their shooting early. It was almost two minutes into the game before either team scored. Youngstown scored first and then several of their starters got hot early from the three point line. YSU Junior Guard Dwayne Cohill had a traditional three, and an And One early for a six point half.
The Youngstown player that had the best half was Senior Guard #2 Tevin Olison. Olison is a 6-4, 200 pounder who knows how to use his size against smaller guards. The strong Senior hit for 2 threes, a two, and chipped in one point from the line. Senior Forward Michael Akuchie had two field goals, and a couple free throws for a six point half. Two sophomores hit threes also. Daniel Ogoro hit one from the right corner, and Shemar Rathan-Mayes nailed a deep three from the top of the key. Forward Myles Hunter chipped in 4 points off the bench.
The Penguins lead the first half for most of the time. Their shooting was just a little better than Cleveland especially early in the half. With CSU struggling a little bit with scoring, CSU Coach Dennis Gates inserted Senior Guard Chris Greene half way through the first half, and he created instant offense by raining threes from several spots on the floor. Greene hit his first three pointer within his first minute on the floor. Then with 9:23 to go he hit his second, and then he got his third in a row at 8:13 left in the half causing the Penguins to call a timeout at that point.
With the help of D’Moi Hodge adding two three pointers of his own, and Deante Johnson the Senior Forward adding four, including a thunderous dunk late in the half. The star of the half was clearly Chris Greene with his great shooting. The Vikings lead at half 32 to 31.
In the second half CSU fared better offensively with balanced scoring and spreading the ball around the court. Whereas YSU really struggled with shooting in the second, with only 39% shooting, and a paltry 20% from three point range. In fact the Penguins did not score a point for almost the first three minutes of the second. Then Dwayne Cohill, who is from The CLE by the way, went off by first hitting a three from the top of the key at the 15:41 mark. Then he just proceeded to go to work the rest of the half. He consistently hit shots mostly inside, giving Cohill an impressive 16 point second half. The problem for Cohill and Youngstown is that he didn’t get much help from the rest of the Penguin squad.
Meanwhile CSU was putting a cushion of a lead between themselves and the Penguins. A second inside slam dunk by Deante Johnson at 5:48 remaining put the Vikes up 56 to 46. It seemed like the game might be in CSU’s control, but there’s no quit in the Penguins, especially Friday night.
That’s when Cohill took over late for the Penguins and did the bulk of his scoring. Then with the clock running down and Cleveland clinging to a lead, #55 Hodge fouled out with just 50 seconds left. Now Cleveland had lost a big part of their inside presence, both offensively and defensively.
Then with the game on the line and Youngstown only down by one, the Penguins had the ball in the hands of Cohill. He dribbled down court at full speed with every intention of scoring the winning bucket inside. Then as he approached the lane, he plowed into the Cleveland defender Yehil Hill, and it was extremely close but the ref called a charging foul with just 1.8 seconds on the clock.
A beautiful inbound pass from Hill to Tre Gomillion for a massive slam putting the game away with less than one second left. The final score was 64- 61, CSU Vikings prevailed in a real nail biter.
Cleveland State won the field goal percentage battle 46 to 41 percent. CSU won the three percentage battle 41 to 32. Much in part to the 4 of 5 three point shooting of the Viking’s Chris Greene. Cleveland also out rebounded YSU 34 to 24 for the game.
The win puts Cleveland State in first place in the Horizon League. Coach Gates will most likely have this team poised for another run at the conference, and a bid in the NCAA tournament.
