Penguins Freeze Out Falcons For BracketBusters Win

Saturday, February 19

Youngstown, Ohio

7:05 pm

Bowling Green State University

Youngstown State

Photo by: Doug Sampson

February 19, 2011 | Men's Basketball

By: by Jason Knavel, Assistant Athletic Director for Athletic Communications

Boxscore

Youngstown, Ohio – The Bowling Green State University men's basketball team scored a season-high 46 first-half points but was outscored by 10 in the second half as Youngstown State defeated the Falcons 83-76 in the annual ESPN BracketBusters series Saturday night.

Bowling Green shot 61 percent in the first half but Youngstown stayed close by making seven three-pointers and committing only two turnovers. The Falcons went into the break with a 46-43 lead.

The second half featured three ties and seven lead changes, most coming during the first 10 minutes of the frame. With Youngstown State clinging to a 62-61 lead Danny McElroy scored inside and Torian Oglesby had a dunk to put the Falcons back in the lead, 65-62. But Bowling Green went scoreless over the next five minutes as the Penguins scored 12 in a row to take control.

DuShawn Brooks' jumper with 4:52 to go gave Youngstown State a 74-65 lead but Luke Kraus answered with a three-pointer to make it a six-point lead. YSU scored the next five points for the team's largest lead of the game at 11 points, 79-68, with 2:14 left.

Kraus knocked down another three-pointer and then Scott Thomas had a steal and Kraus hit another three 12 seconds later to cut the deficit to five. Over the next 78 seconds, Youngstown State missed the front end of two 1-and-1 free-throw attempts but the Falcons came up empty on the offensive end.

Finally, Jordon Crawford found Thomas for a lay-up with 28 seconds left to make it 79-76 but the Penguins went 4-for-4 at the line to ice the game.

Thomas posted his seventh career double-double with 13 points and a career-best 14 rebounds, to go with five assists. Crawford came off the bench to score 13, all in the first half, and he added a career-high nine assists. A'uston Calhoun led the team with 16 points and McElroy had 10 points on 5-of-6 shooting.

For the game, Bowling Green shot 51 percent from the field, as did Youngstown State. The Penguins, however, went 11-of-27 from three-point range and had only six turnovers, half as many as the Falcons. Bowling Green held a 38-31 rebounding advantage and got 37 points from its bench.

Youngstown State improves to 9-18 with the win. Now 12-15, Bowling Green will play at Ohio Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. in a game televised on Sports Time Ohio.