Correspondent photo / Robert Hayes. YSU's EJ Farmer drives and scores past a pair of Western Michigan defenders during the first half on Wednesday at the Beeghly Center en route scoring a team-high 20 points.

YOUNGSTOWN — Youngstown State’s inability to finish proved to be the Penguins’ downfall on Wednesday afternoon.

With 5:07 to go, YSU tied the game off a jump shot from fifth-year Nico Galette. Over the final five minutes, the Penguins managed to score just two more points, as Western Michigan closed things out down the stretch to hand YSU a 73-62 defeat in the team’s home opener at the Zidian Family Arena at the Beeghly Center.

“The way we were scoring the ball, it was when we were getting stops and being able to run,” head coach Ethan Faulkner said. “When you can’t rebound the ball, that’s hard to do. … I don’t think we’re going to be a really good grind-it-up, half-court offensive team. Our MO has got to be really defending at a high level, being able to rebound the basketball and then be really good in transition.”

During that closing stretch, YSU went 0-for-7 from the floor and were 2-for-6 from the free-tthrow line.

“To be honest, it was just a lot going on,” senior guard EJ Farmer said. “We just couldn’t find a basket. We gave up a couple of offensive rebounds, and that kind of killed us a little bit.”

Just as they did during those final minutes, the Broncos asserted their dominance on the glass throughout the game.

Western Michigan outrebounded the Penguins 49-30, including 18-12 on the offensive glass, which led to 19 second-chance points for the Broncos.

“It was the difference in the game, our inability to rebound the ball,” Faulkner said. “I thought we’d come out in the second half, try to set the tone for how physical we were going to be. We knew coming in, in games that they score more than 65 points, they offensive rebound their misses at a 45% rate, which is an extremely high number. We knew that was the biggest key to the game and just weren’t able to execute on that piece of the gameplan.”

After trailing by six at halftime, YSU opened the second half on a 9-1 run to take just its second lead of the game.

Farmer hit a pair of jump shots, while Juwan Maxey tied the game with a three-pointer. Farmer then hit a layup to give YSU the lead.

However, like it had all game, whenever YSU tried to make a run, Western Michigan was able to answer with a run of its own.

“We just shied away from making the right reads,” Maxey said. “Our coach preaches free-throw line reads. We don’t get down because we’re a good team, we just gotta make the right reads, and ultimately it comes down to just making the basket.”

In the absence of starting point guard Jason Nelson, who missed his second straight game on Wednesday, Maxey made his second consecutive start.

He found his shooting stroke, as he hit a career-high four 3-point shots to finish with 12 points, along with seven assists. Maxey was the only Penguin able to find his shot from deep, as YSU went 5-for-27 from beyond the arc.

“Losing Jason hurts, but we are a deep team. We trust everybody on the team to make a shot, that’s what we want,” Maxey said. “One person goes down, nothing should really change. We should help our brother till he comes back so that when he comes back, we’ll be ready for him.”

In addition to Maxey’s 12 points, Farmer finished with a game-high 20 points on 8-for-16 shooting.

YSU needed the increased offensive production from Farmer and Maxey with fifth-year guard Ty Harper hampered by foul trouble and Galette struggling from the floor.

“We needed Juwan to produce. I thought he played a good offensive game,” Faulkner said. “Obviously he had four threes, more importantly, he had seven assists and two turnovers. We need more guys with his mentality to share the basketball. We talk a lot offensively about playing for each other, and I thought he did a good job of that tonight creating shots for our team.”

The loss drops YSU to 2-5 overall and is the Penguins’ third straight after dropping its last two games at the multi-team event in Texas last week. The Penguins will try to get back in the win-column on Saturday, as they host Bethany (W.Va.) at 6 p.m. at the Beeghly Center.

“I wouldn’t say I’m concerned, I’m frustrated and certainly not happy with where we’re at,” Faulkner said. “We’ve got some things we gotta get fixed on both sides of the ball. We’ve gotta raise our level of toughness, and that encompasses a lot, not just defensively, but offensively as well. We’ve got four seniors on this team that need to take ownership over this team. … We’re early in the season, and we’ve got a lot of basketball left — a lot of time to fix it, but we’ve gotta have urgency day-in and day-out to get better.”