Mar 12, 2025
Robert Morris’ 6-foot-9 forward Alvaro Folgueiras drives in against Youngstown State’s 7-foot-3 Gabe Dynes (45) in the Horizon League Tournament championship game on Tuesday night. (AP photo/Michael Conroy)
INDIANAPOLIS — For two games, Youngstown State’s defense carried the Penguins into their first Horizon League championship game appearance.
But on Tuesday night, YSU finally ran out of gas, as the Penguins struggled to slow down Robert Morris’ offensive efficiency in a 89-78 defeat to the Colonials at Corteva Coliseum in Indianapolis.
“Credit to them, they played excellent basketball from the start,” YSU coach Ethan Faulkner said. “Just didn’t feel like we had it tonight defensively. We gave up 89 points and 23 assists to eight turnovers — kind of dominated us on the offensive glass. Defensively, we have to be elite to beat these teams. I didn’t think our offense was spectacular by any stretch of the imagination, but we scored 78 points and we made 11 threes. 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.”
The Colonials finished the game shooting 46.8% overall and 50% from three, while knocking down 11 threes. Josh Omojafo finished with 24 points and 13 rebounds to lead RMU’s five double-figure scorers, as Kam Woods was named the tournament’s MVP.
“Robert Morris is a really good offensive basketball team,” Faulkner said. “A very difficult team to guard, particularly difficult for us to guard because of their ability for their forwards to shoot the basketball. We just didn’t feel like we had the connection that we had last night defensively.”
For YSU, it marks the end of what’s been an up-and-down, but memorable and historic season for the Penguins.
“It feels good making history, but not losing of course,” said junior guard Juwan Maxey. “Like I said, we’ll remember this feeling, and now we know what to expect next year.”
YSU dealt with some offensive struggles at the start of the year, only to then bounce back and win eight straight games. In conference play, the Penguins staved off a rough string of games and injuries during the middle of the season to climb the Horizon League standings during the closing stretch in February.
After earning a top-four seed and a first-round bye in the tournament for the third straight season, YSU won two defensive slugfests to make its first appearance in the title game, but ultimately fell short of earning its first Division I NCAA tournament appearance in program history.
“Obviously it’s a terrible feeling. You have to go through it to really understand it,” said sophomore center Gabe Dynes, who had his fourth double-double of the season with 11 points and 10 rebounds against the Colonials. “You just feel terrible for the seniors and feel terrible for everybody involved. It’s not a good feeling. You work so hard and come in second place, it’s not a good feeling.”
The Penguins shook off a near disastrous start, during which Robert Morris knocked down three 3-pointers and raced ahead to an 11-0 lead right from the opening tip.
After weathering the early storm, YSU got the deficit down to one after Maxey drained a last-ditch 3-point attempt as the shot clock expired with about two minutes till halftime.
But Robert Morris drained back-to-back baskets to take a five-point lead into the locker room.
It was a common theme all night. YSU would be right on the cusp of closing the deficit or pulling ahead, only for Robert Morris to go on a run of its own or knock down a momentum-killing shot.
“They knocked down open shots, kudos to them,” Maxey said. “We kind of slowed down on the defensive end in this game. They hit shots and we couldn’t.”
In the second half, the Penguins had momentum on their side with a chance to tie the game with just under 10 minutes left, but Ty Harper missed a potential game-tying dunk, which led to a transition 3-pointer by RMU’s Alvaro Folgueiras back the other way.
That proved to be a pivotal turning point in the second half, as the Penguins were never quite able to get any closer the rest of the way.
“Every time it seemed like we made a run, we had a defensive breakdown,” Faulkner said. “We lose (DJ) Smith for a three, give up an offensive rebound or Omojafo would drive the ball and create a foul situation where it was going to the foul line. Again, just not good enough on that end of the floor tonight.”
Maxey led YSU with 23 points on five made threes, while Nico Galette scored 21 points and earned a spot on the Horizon League All-Tournament team.
The Penguins finish the 2024-25 season at 21-13 overall and will bid farewell to four seniors who have exhausted their eligibility, including Galette, Harper, Siem Uijtendaal and EJ Farmer.
As YSU turns its attention to the offseason, the Penguins’ next step is keeping the players on its roster that still have eligibility together.
“Really proud of our group with how we’ve just stuck with it,” Faulkner said. “We’ve been a team that has responded each and every time adversity has come our way. (Now), we’ve got a chance to have some continuity here. We’ve got a lot of guys with returning eligibility, and we’re going to fight like crazy to keep this group together. As I told them, I want you guys to feel this, feel what this feels like to get to this point and come up short, and let that be motivation for us to work like crazy this offseason to have a chance to get back here next year.”
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