Belin Scores 32 As Penguins Rally Falls Short at Kent State

by YSU

Thursday, Nov 28, 2013 8:59 am

Kent, Ohio - Kamren Belin scored a career-high 32 points and the Youngstown State men's basketball team fought back to push Kent State to the limit before dropping an 83-79 decision to the Golden Flashes at the M.A.C. Center on Wednesday night.

Belin scored 25 points in the second half, which eclipsed his previous career high of 24 against Cleveland State set in January. He was 7-of-14 from the field, including four 3-pointers and was 14-of-15 from the free-throw line.

The loss drops the Penguins to 6-2 on the season and the Golden Flashes improve to 7-1 on the campaign.

YSU trailed by a dozen at halftime, but quickly erased most of the deficit at the outset of the second half to pull tie the contest at 44 when Belin made three straight free throws after being fouled on a 3-point attempt. At one stretch early in the second stanza, Belin scored 10 consecutive YSU points.

The contest was later tied a 56 with 12:22 remaining and following two Mark Henniger free throws at the 12:10 mark the Penguins could never get the lead again.

The Penguins trailed 65-58 following a 9-2 spurt, but Ryan Weber and Marcus Keene converted back-to-back 3-pointers to cut the deficit to one. The lead went up to eight at 80-72, but Weber knocked down a 3-pointer and a steal and breakaway dunk by Kendrick Perry brought YSU within 80-76 with 1:30 left.

The Guins played soild defense for most of the shot clock, but Kris Brewer was fouled and converted two free throws with 55.1 seconds left. Perry drove the lane and kicked it out to an open Belin who drained a 3-pointer with 47.7 to once again make the contest a one-possession game.

YSU again played good defense as Kent State ran the shot clock down and Brewer's shot missed the mark, but the ball bounced out of bounds of the Penguins with 11.2 ticks left. Brewer split a pair of free throws with 10 seconds left and Weber's three with four seconds left was just off the mark.

Perry scored 15 while Weber chipped in 10 on the night. Leading Kent State was Derek Jackson who scored 15 points. He was one of five KSU players to score double figures.

For the first 16-plus minutes of the first half, neither team led by more than three points and the score was deadlocked 10 times.

The Penguins did a good job pounding the ball inside as their first six field goals of the contest were layups. Belin connected from behind the 3-point arc to put the Guins in front 17-14 at the 10:02 mark.

After neither team could muster an advantage, Weber's 3-pointer in the corner tied the game at 22 with 4:56 remaining and 51 seconds later, Perry's layup off a nice feed from Amiker tied the game with 4:05 left.

But from there Kent State caught fire making three straight 3-pointers while an Amiker free throw was the only score for the Penguins in that span as the Golden Flashes built a 33-25 lead.

KSU scored the final five points in the last 44 seconds as Devareuax Manley drained a 3-pointer from the top of the key and Darren Goodson added a layup just before the halftime buzzer as the Penguins trailed 42-30.

The Guins made 10-of-25 shots (40 percent) in the opening half while Kent State shot 40.6 percent (13-of-32. At one point KSU was shooting just 25 percent (3-of-12).

YSU returns home to take on Austin Peay on Saturday night at the Beeghly Center. Tipoff for the second-game of a men's-women's doubleheader is set for 7:05 p.m. The women take on West Virginia in the opener at 4:35 p.m.

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