Correspondent photo / Robert Hayes. YSU forward Cris Carroll drives and scores during the Penguins' second half run on Saturday against Cleveland State. He tallied a team-high 18 points in the loss.

YOUNGSTOWN — Just too little, too late for Youngstown State.

Despite a late rally that began with six minutes to go that cut their deficit to one, the Penguins came up short down the stretch. Cleveland State held on late to hand YSU an 80-72 defeat in a clash between the top two teams in the Horizon League standings.

“They’re very aggressive. They make every pass hard, they make every bounce of the ball hard — a very, very good defensive basketball team,” head coach Ethan Faulkner said. “I give them a lot of credit. Just too many mistakes that really kept us from getting over the hump and having a real chance to win the game.”

With 5:55 left, CSU freshman Je’Shawn Stevenson hit a second-chance 3-pointer that put the Vikings up by 14.

From that point, the Penguins clawed their way back into the game with a 13-0 run over the next two minutes that brought the Beeghly Center to life.

As YSU went to its full-court pressure on the defensive end, all 13 of the Penguins’ points during that stretch came from junior forward Cris Carroll, who hit three 3-pointers, knocked down a layup off a turnover and made a pair of free throws.

“We were just getting stops and trying to get back in the game on the shots I made,” Carroll said. “I feel like we had good ball pressure for most of the game, but we didn’t have it for 40 minutes. If we had it for 40 minutes, it definitely would have been a different outcome. They took the pressure well.”

However, the Vikings then broke YSU’s run with a Tahj Steveskie 3-pointer and closed things out with a 14-7 run over the final three minutes.

“When you put yourself in that position, you almost have to be perfect those last six minutes to be able to get that thing back over the hump,” Faulkner said. “It’s challenging because when you get back to a one-possession game, you’re trying to decide, are we going to stay with the pressure or are we not? We stayed with it, and probably our aggression got the best of us because we fouled and put them on the line. So we gotta be better in those situations.”

Carroll led the Penguins with 18 points, while Ty Harper added 16 points for YSU.

Despite jumping out to an early 11-2 advantage, YSU shot just 34.5% overall and 28.6% from beyond the arc in the first half, which allowed Cleveland State to take a six-point lead at halftime.

“They’re very similar to the way that we play defense,” Faulkner said. “Really the fact is, they played much better defense than we did tonight, which gave them a much better chance to win the game. I thought their pressure disrupted us all night. We ended up with 13 turnovers, but even on possessions we weren’t turning the ball over, it’s hard to get into an offensive rhythm against those guys.”

Throughout the season, when YSU has struggled offensively, the Penguins have relied on their defense to keep them in games. But against the Vikings, the defense struggled as well, at least up until the Penguins’ late rally.

The Vikings finished with five different players scoring in double figures, led by Tahj Staveskie with 21 points. CSU’s Dylan Arnett had a 15-point, 12-rebound double-double, while Stevenson and Tevin Smith each added 14 points.

For the game, Cleveland State shot a sizzling 49.2% overall and 50% from 3-point range, while hitting 11 threes.

“We come out of the gate very aggressive, got off to a great start and were very disruptive with our defense. Then for whatever reason, we just lost our aggressiveness,” Faulkner said. “Not only are they good defensively, but they are playing really well offensively. If you look at what they’re doing against league opponents, they’re No. 1 in the league in offense as well. Just got guys really making shots.”

The Penguins now have almost a week before they embark on their Wisconsin road swing against Milwaukee on Jan. 17 and Green Bay on Jan. 19.

“We gotta be better. We gotta get back to the drawing board,” Faulkner said. “Obviously a difficult week next week as well. So we gotta try to make up some ground and make some progress here early next week before we hit the road.”