YSU men’s basketball fell to the Robert Morris Colonials in their first ever Horizon League Championship game.
The Penguins basketball team made their very first appearance in the Horizon League Championship game ever since they changed to the Horizon League. They ended up not bringing home the championship win, losing to the Colonials 89-78 on March 11. If the Penguins would have won, it would have been their first time ever making it to the NCAA tournament the Big Dance.
Juwan Maxey YSU’s guard put up 23 points getting four assists and a rebound. Cris Carroll, YSU’s forward, put up eight points, three rebounds and two assists. The Colonials took a 11-0 quick in the first half. But the Penguins didn’t let that last long, bringing the score to 30-29 with time left in the first half.
Maxey YSU’s guard was pleased with them making history but not so much on the losing side.
“We made history, you know we were the third team to make it to the final four, I believe and the first team to make it into the Horizon League Championship, it feels good making history but not losing of course,” said Maxey.
Robert Morris then kept their lead going into halftime with the score of 34-29. The Penguins cut the score down to 54-52 with 11 minutes in the quarter; they weren’t able to take the lead the entire game. The Colonials led the game from start to finish.
YSU’s head coach Ethan Faulker feels they had an okay game offensively but not so much on the defensive side.
“They played excellent basketball from the start, it feels like we didn’t have it tonight defensively, we gave up 89 points, 23 assists and eight turnovers,” said Faulker.
YSU’s Maxey, Nico Galette and Gabe Dynes led the Penguins that night. Maxey led with 23 points, Galette came in with 23 points and Dynes had 11 points and 10 rebounds for the Penguins. Robert Morris created a safe distance outsourcing the Penguins 11-5 in a four minute time span.
Faulker expressed how they did well enough on the offensive side to give them a chance to win the game.
“I felt like we did enough offensively to at least give us a better chance to win the game, just didn’t have it tonight defensively,” said Faulker.
