YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (WKBN) – The Youngstown State men’s basketball team shot 60 percent in the first half to build a 30-point halftime lead and beat nearby Division III opponent Westminster 93-67 on Wednesday evening at Beeghly Center.
Garrett Covington scored a game-high 20 points in just 19 minutes, and Darius Quisenberry had 15 points, five rebounds, five assists and four steals. The guards combined to go 14-for-20 from the field to help Youngstown State shoot 52.2 for the game. Three Penguins had eight points, and 12 YSU players scored.
Dylan O’Hara scored 13 points to lead three Westminster players in double figures.
Youngstown State improved to 4-3 overall and 3-0 at Beeghly Center, while Westminster dropped to 4-2.
Blake Payne’s 3-pointer at the 18:05 mark gave Westminster a 5-0 lead, but the Titans didn’t make another field goal for more than seven minutes. By that point, Youngstown State had gone on a 23-3 run to take a 23-8 lead.
Quisenberry had nine of YSU’s first 18 points, and his free throw with 12:41 remaining capped a 12-0 spurt that put the Penguins ahead 18-7. The margin was double digits for the final 33 minutes.
Youngstown State led by as much as 30 twice in the first half. The first time came when Quisenberry fed Tyler Foster on a transition layup with 1:44 left to put the Penguins up 51-21 and cap a 16-0 run. After Payne made two free throws for the Titans’ only points of the final 5:54 of the half, Christian Bentley’s layup put YSU ahead 53-23 at halftime.
Turnovers played a big part as the Penguins built their 30-point halftime lead. Westminster’s seventh turnover on the first eight minutes resulted in the Quisenberry free throw that capped a 12-0 run, and YSU converted 14 turnovers into 18 points in the half. The Penguins also scored 34 of their 53 first-half points in the paint, and 10 more came from the free-throw line.
YSU scored the first points of the second half to push the lead to 55-23, and the margin was 58-28 before the Titans scored nine straight points to get within 58-37 with 15:43 remaining.
The lead reached 30 again at 82-52 with just over seven minutes remaining on a Quisenberry basket, and YSU matched its largest lead when a Jelani Simmons layup from Quisenberry made the score 84-52.
For the game, Youngstown State held scoring edges of 26-3 off turnovers, 48-28 in the paint and 26-9 in transition. The Penguins outshot the Titans 52.2 percent to 40.7 percent. Westminster shot 51.6 percent in the final 20 minutes as it scored 44 points in the half.
The Penguins are back on the road to visit Central Michigan on Saturday at 4:30 p.m.
Courtesy: YSU Sports Information
