Wright State expanded a two-point halftime advantage to as much as 13 in the second half, but had to hold off a late Youngstown State rally before defeating the Penguins 67-61 in Horizon League men's basketball action at the Beeghly Center Thursday night.

A Troy Tabler jumper put the Raiders up 22-15 with 6:14 to play in the first half, but YSU answered with an 8-0 burst to go up one at the 2:41 mark. Wright State, though, responded right back with six straight until a last-second three from Vance Cooksey trimmed the WSU halftime advantage to 28-26.

Wright State shot 39 percent from the field over the opening 20 minutes compared to 33 percent for the Penguins.

The Raiders hit five of their first seven shots of the second half in going on a 20-9 run over an 8:03 span, to build their biggest lead of the game at 48-35. Eight of those 20 points came from Cooper Land off the bench while Todd Brown added six.

The margin was still 55-44 after a N'Gai Evans three with 7:24 remaining, but YSU chipped away from there, drawing to within three at 62-59 on a DeAndre Mays putback with 53 seconds left.

Evans, however, hit a short left-handed jumper along the right side of the lane to make it a two-possession game at the 39.8-second mark. After Brown extended the lead to 65-59 with a foul shot with 19.8 seconds to play, Will Graham sealed the victory with two more free throws with 7.9 seconds left.

Both teams shot the ball well in the second half as WSU hit for 48 percent to finish at 43 percent overall while Youngstown State connected on 14 of 28 shots the final 20 minutes to end up at 42 percent. The Raiders, though, won the game at the foul line as they were 19 of 24 for the game, including 14 of 16 in the second half, compared to 10 of 18 for the Penguins, who were just three of five from the stripe in the second half.

Brown led all scorers with 20 for Wright State, 12 of those coming in the second half, while Land tallied all but two of his 12 points after halftime and Evans had all 11 of his points during that stanza. Graham chipped in nine points and Cory Cooperwood had a near double-double of eight points and nine rebounds.

Tom Parks paced Youngstown State (6-14, 3-7 Horizon) with 15 points while Dallas Blocker had 12 off the bench.

Wright State (13-8, 7-3 Horizon), now winners of 13 of its last 15 games, heads to Cleveland State Saturday for a key League matchup starting at 7:30.