Correspondent photo / Robert Hayes. YSU's Gabe Dynes makes a layup while being fouled during the second half against Green Bay on Sunday at the Beeghly Center.. He added 19 points and 12 rebounds during the winning effort.

YOUNGSTOWN — Green Bay’s record may not look like much on paper, but the Phoenix play a dangerous style with their small-ball, five-out motion that can present plenty of matchup problems.

“They’ve got five on the floor at all times that can drive the ball, shoot the ball and pass the ball — I think they run great stuff,” YSU coach Ethan Faulkner said. “I think their guys really know how to play the game, share the basketball. Their off-ball movement — they turn you over side-to-side.”

On Sunday afternoon, Youngstown State had to adjust to that, while playing without its leading scorer for the second straight game.

The Penguins faced plenty of scares, but ultimately pulled things out behind the interior play of Gabe Dynes and Nico Galette in an 81-77 victory over the Phoenix on Senior Day at Zidian Family Arena.

“What’s difficult for us is we have to adjust so much of what our primary defensive principles are, particularly in the ball screen, because of their weapons with the forwards’ (ability) to shoot the basketball,” Faulkner said. “We basically have to just go switching ball screens, which for most teams, that’s not our primary ball screen coverage. … I give (Green Bay) a lot of credit for how this game went. I thought they played excellent.

“For a long time, I felt like we were trying to pry energy out of our guys, but to our credit, we found a way to get it done in a game that I didn’t think we had our best stuff.”

At halftime, the Penguins clung to a one-point (33-32) lead after falling behind by as many as seven in the first half.

In the second half, YSU emphasized its size advantage against the Phoenix, continuously going to Dynes and Galette down low.

As Green Bay started to heat up from beyond the arc — the Phoenix hit six threes in the second half, compared to just three before the break — the Penguins kept attacking in the post.

“We definitely felt like we had an advantage there,” Galette said. “We just wanted to exploit that advantage on offense, so we tried to attack that.”

Galette finished with 21 points and nine rebounds, his sixth 20-point game of the season, while Dynes had a double-double with 19 points and 12 rebounds, his third double-double of his sophomore campaign.

“We knew going into this game that when Gabe was on the floor, they were going to take (Yonatan) Levy out of the game. They were trying to counter our size with their five-out offense,” Faulkner said. “So one area we felt like we could attack them offensively was through the post. Had a distinct size advantage with Nico and Gabe, and I didn’t think they were going to let us lose that game with the way they played — aggressive, tough and physical.”

Facing a tie game at 69 with just under four minutes left, Galette came off a screen and drained a long three right in front of the Penguins’ bench, giving YSU the lead for good.

“We were trying to lock in right there, so I’m just happy that the play worked how it worked,” Galette said. “We executed, and I was able to hit.”

While Dynes was able to utilize his mismatch on offense, he had to adjust defensively to Green Bay’s five-out motion, which the Phoenix used to try to pull Dynes and his shot-blocking ability out of the paint to try to create space in the post to drive to the basket.

“Just gotta play normal defense,” Dynes said. “You gotta do the same thing everyone else is doing. You gotta be very careful when rotating and firing over. I just gotta play defense like a guard — I can’t over help, and I can’t under help. I just gotta play my man and play five together.”

With the win, YSU sits alone in third in the Horizon League standings, one game behind first-place Robert Morris, which rose to the top of the league standings on Sunday with a win over Milwaukee and Cleveland State’s overtime loss at Oakland.

“I think at this point, we gotta worry about what we can control,” Faulkner said. “We’ve lost the luxury of controlling our own destiny in terms of where we’re going to finish in the league. There’s still a mathematical possibility that we could share the league championship, but obviously we’re going to need a lot of help for that to be the case.

While the Colonials and Penguins each only have one game remaining, the rest of the conference still has two. YSU wraps up the regular season on Saturday on the road at Northern Kentucky.

“We got a bunch of guys that are dinged up, and we’ve got sickness with EJ (Farmer),” Faulkner said. “So we’ll take the day off tomorrow, we’ll do individuals on Tuesday to try to give our bodies time to heal up, and then we’ll have three-day prep for NKU. … We have to use these next four days that we’re on the floor here in practice to get better and go down to NKU and try to play well to get a big road win.”