The Wright State men's basketball team led by 13 at the half and by as much as 17 midway through the second half, but had to hold off a late Youngstown State rally before defeating the Penguins 87-81 Thursday night at the Beeghly Center.

Neither team had more than a four-point lead in the first half until Grant Benzinger connected on a jumper to give the Raiders a 30-24 advantage with seven minutes remaining.  A jumper and foul shot by Mark Alstork made it 33-26 and WSU later went on a 11-0 run to build a 44-31 halftime lead.

Wright State hit 20 of 29 shots in the opening 20 minutes for 69 percent, including three of six three-pointers, while Youngstown State made 13 of 26 shots overall and was three of eight from behind the arc.

The Raiders took their biggest lead of the game at 63-46 on a JT Yoho jumper with 10:19 to play and still held a 78-65 advantage after a Michael Karena basket with 3:49 left, but the Penguins made a late charge and only trailed 83-78 following a Cameron Morse three with 37 seconds to go.

WSU, though, pushed the margin back up to 87-78 on three Joe Thomasson foul shots and one by Yoho down the stretch before Morse connected on another three in the final seconds.

Wright State shot 61 percent overall despite hitting just three of 12 threes and was 18 of 29 at the foul line while Youngstown State shot 51 percent, hit nine of 18 threes and 12 of 13 at the line.  The Raiders led 54-30 in points in the paint and 21-11 in points off of turnovers.

Karena paced WSU with a career-high 26 points, making 11 of 15 shots, while Alstork had 21, Yoho and Thomasson nine and Biggie Minnis eight along with eight assists off the bench.

Morse led all scorers with 29 for Youngstown State (10-20, 5-12 Horizon) while Matt Donlan added 18.

Wright State (18-12, 12-5 Horizon) closes out the regular season on Saturday, February 27, as the Raiders face Cleveland State in Quicken Loans Arena, home of the NBA Cleveland Cavaliers, starting at 1:00.