March 3, 2009 | Box Score

Penguins' Second-Half Rally Comes Up Short in 73-68 Opening Round Loss

    Youngstown -- A rollercoaster shooting game dipped at the wrong point for Youngstown State as UIC rallied to defeat the Penguins 73-68 in the opening round of the Horizon League Men's Basketball Championship on Tuesday at Beeghly Center.
    The Penguins, who trailed by as many as 15 after a slow start to the first half, outscored UIC 43-38 in a second half that climaxed with an 8-0 run that gave YSU its first lead of the game.
    Just as quick as the Penguins' hot shooting put them ahead 62-58, they missed five straight shots as UIC scored eight straight points and never trailed again.
    Rob Eppinger, who scored a career-high 20 points to compliment 14 rebounds, hit two free throws to cut the deficit to two, and Vytas Sulskis was called for a questionable charge on YSU's next trip down the floor. Josh Mayo hit a basket to tie the game at 3:26, and UIC hit four straight free throws to go up 66-62.
    Sulskis hit a 3-pointer with 58 seconds left to cut the margin to one, but Eppinger had a three-point play off an offensive rebound to spark a five-point run in the final minute.
    Tom Parks hit his fifth trey with six seconds left to cut the deficit to three, but Eppinger added two more free throws for the final tally.
    UIC moves on to play Cleveland State on Friday in the tournament quarterfinals while YSU's season ends with an 11-19 record.
    Sulskis finished with 20 points, and Parks had all 15 of his points on 3-pointers.
    UIC got nine second-chance points in the second half, six of which came in a row with 10 minutes remaining, and the final three came on Eppinger's three-point play with 27 seconds left.
    The Flames had four players in double figures as Tori Boyd and Robo Kreps had 15, and Mayo had 14.
    After weathering a poor-shooting first half in which it fought to stay within 10 at halftime, YSU started the second half by hitting 5-for-6 and went on a 14-5 run. The Penguins then missed four straight shots after DeAndre Mays' bucket at the 16:46 mark cut the margin to 40-39, and Mayo hit a 3-pointer to end a 4 1/2-minute field goal drought for the Flames to them back ahead by four.
    UIC opened up a seven-point, 52-45 lead at 10:31, and YSU scored six straight to get within one for the second time in the half. UIC held again and went ahead 58-54 on three straight put-backs.
    That's when YSU scored eight straight points on a Parks three, a Sulskis put-back off his own miss and a Kelvin Bright trey.
    YSU started the second half 13-for-24 but went scoreless for the next 3:40 until Sulskis' trey made it 66-65 with 58 seconds remaining.
    UIC outscored YSU 30-20 in the paint, but the Penguins held a 35-4 edge in bench points. The Flames were 16-for-18 from the free-throw line in the game and 14-for-15 in the second half.
    The Penguins battled through a cold-shooting first half in which they were outshot 50 percent to 32.1 percent and trailed by just 10, 35-25, at the break. YSU started 4-for-16, was held without a field goal for 7 1/2 minutes and found itself trailing 28-13 with 6:42 remaining. YSU rebounded to score the next four points and ended the half by scoring six of the final eight points to cut the deficit to 10 at halftime.
    YSU hit one of its first six shots but trailed just 8-6 on Tom Parks' 3-pointer at the 15:13 mark. Once Sulskis' reverse lay-up made the score 12:10 at the 13:44 mark, UIC scored six straight points as part of a 13-2 run to take its 15-point lead. Boyd hit treys on back-to-back possessions to put give UIC its first double-digit lead at the 10:16 mark, and Jeremy Buttell hit another trey with a second on the shot clock to make the score 28-13.
    UIC's first 10 points came in the paint, and the Flames held a 16-8 edge in the first half. YSU kept leading scorer Mayo to five points in the half, but he had six of UIC's eight assists. Eppinger and Boyd had nine points apiece for UIC in the opening 20 minutes.