Dec. 21, 2007

Men's Basketball: Slow Start Dooms Penguins to 79-59 Loss at Akron

    Akron, Ohio -- The Youngstown State men's basketball team got off to a slow start and had a second-half rally fizzle as it dropped a 79-59 decision to Akron on Friday evening at the James A. Rhodes Arena.
    YSU trailed by as many as 28 in the first half but steadily trimmed the deficit to 10 early in the second half thanks to a 14-4 run to start the stanza.
    Akron led 50-30 with 17:32 remaining, but YSU scored the next 10 points to make the score 50-40 on a Jack Liles layup. After a timeout the Zips scored four straight to go up 14, and YSU got within 11 three different times before Akron began to pull away.
    Byron Davis hit a trey with 6:46 remaining to make the score 64-52, but a 13-2 Akron run gave the Zips a 77-54 lead with 1:41 left.
    Liles finished with a game-high 16 points and nine rebounds while Davis added 14 and John Barber had 12. Cedrick Middleton had 16 to lead Akron.
    The game featured 76 free throws as Akron went 35-of-43 and YSU went 22-of-33. Akron outshot the Penguins 54 percent to 30 percent in the first half en route to its big lead but tailed off to a 33 percent effort in the second half.
    The Zips went on a 21-4 run in the first half and scored 19 points off of YSU's 14 turnovers to take a 46-26 lead at the break. Middleton had 11 and Jeremiah Wood had nine in the first 20 minutes for Akron. The Zips also struggled to maintain possession by committing 12 turnovers in the first half, but they held an 11-3 advantage in assists and went 15-of-19 from the free throw line.
    The Penguins will return home to take on Slippery Rock on Dec. 29 at 2:05 p.m.