Correspondent photo / Robert Hayes. YSU senior Bryson Dawkins cuts past a pair of Northern Kentucky defenders in the first half on Sunday at Zidian Family Arena. His 22 points were a game high.

YOUNGSTOWN — The Youngstown State men’s basketball team flirted with disaster in the second half on Sunday after a dominant first half.

The Penguins fended off a furious second-half rally by Northern Kentucky, holding on late to pull out a 64-58 victory over the Norse and send out their seven seniors with a victory on Senior Day at Zidian Family Arena.

“I thought the first half was the best half of defense we’ve played all year,” YSU head coach Ethan Faulkner said. “It was execution of the gameplan and rebounding the basketball at a high level. The growth for our team is to understand why you’re having success when you have it. … Obviously they ramped up their intensity in the second half, and we’ve gotta be ready to accept that challenge, if you will.”

YSU stayed connected defensively in the first half, holding NKU to 20% shooting as the Norse made just six of their 30 shots.

The Penguins went on an 11-0 run early to build their double-digit lead, holding NKU scoreless for more than five minutes. Then YSU extended it by ending the half with another run that gave it 35-15 lead at halftime.

“Knowing what they did to us last game when we played them at their place, it was a bad loss,” YSU senior guard Bryson Dawkins said. “That was probably the only team that we actually felt like we actually lost to, so we already had that edge on our shoulders. Then, it’s senior night and people refuse to lose on senior night. It’s just a big night for us, then the last home game, so it’s a lot on the line. We came with an edge that we were not going to lose this game to them.”

The Norse punched back hard in the second half. Within the first five minutes, NKU had already cut YSU’s 20-point halftime lead in half.

The rest of the afternoon, the Norse inched closer and closer. With just under four minutes left, the Penguins’ lead was down to four. Then with 35 seconds to go, NKU made it a one-possession game.

“We held them to 15 [in the first half], so we knew they were going to come out with more intensity and try to throw a punch at us,” Carroll said. “We just had to get back to ourselves and really realize that we just gotta keep guarding.”

Cris Carroll went 6-for-6 at the free-throw line over the final four minutes, while he and Dawkins each made key layups down the stretch to help YSU keep the Norse at arm’s length.

“I thought Bryson made some big-time plays attacking the pressure to keep just enough separation to help get us over the hump,” Faulkner said. “We were struggling transitioning out of our press attack into halfcourt offense. This defense is really hard to play against. It’s really hard to replicate in practice and hard to prepare for. I give (NKU) a lot of credit for that. We go through this every time we play these guys.”

Despite NKU’s second-half onslaught, YSU held the Norse to 29.4% shooting for the game. Dawkins finished with a game-high 22 points, while Carroll had his third double-double of the season with 15 points and 10 rebounds.

Had the Penguins played this game two weeks ago, Faulkner said he wasn’t sure they would have pulled it out.

It was another step of growth for YSU over the past five weeks, since the team dropped seven straight Horizon League games from December to January.

“I don’t know that we were capable of staying connected and playing to the next play in a game where things weren’t going our way in the second half,” Faulkner said. “I thought we showed some maturity, I thought we showed some growth to be able to handle that moment and overcome when we really didn’t play that well in the second half on either side of the ball. … I was proud of our team for that.”

YSU closes out the regular season with its annual Wisconsin road swing this week. The Penguins will begin against Milwaukee on Wednesday at 8 p.m., before heading to Green Bay on Saturday at 2 p.m.