Cleveland State rallied from a 12-point deficit in the second half and went 8-for-8 from the free-throw line in the final 40 seconds to beat the Youngstown State women’s basketball team 76-71 on Saturday at the Wolstein Center.

YSU’s Brandi Brown scored 28 points, and Tieara Jones had 14 points and 13 rebounds. Shawnita Garland scored 25 points for Cleveland State, including eight in the final minute. Her steal of a short pass and fast-break lay-up with a minute remaining broke a 66-66 tie.  Shalonda Winton added 20 points for the Vikings, who improved to 17-10 overall and moved into a tie for third place in the league standings at 10-6.

Cleveland State held its largest lead of the game at 43-36 with 15:26 left, but Youngstown State scored 16 straight points over the next three minutes to go up 52-43. Boki Dimitrov’s basket then gave the Penguins their largest lead at 63-51 with 7:04 remaining, but Cleveland State went on a 15-1 run to regain the lead on Garland’s bucket with 2:44 left.

Brown’s basket with 2:24 remaining tied the score at 66-66, and neither team scored until Garland’s steal and lay-up with a minute left. Honesty King hit two free throws with 38.2 seconds remaining to put the Vikings up four, but Brown’s old-fashioned three-point play cut the margin to 70-69 with 25.6 ticks left.  Garland made two free throws for the Vikings to put them up 72-69, and Jones missed the tying 3-pointer from the wing with 14 seconds left. Garland made two free throws with 11.3 seconds remaining, and she hit two more with 4.6 seconds on the clock to finish it off.

Jones had 10 points, six rebounds and three assists at halftime, and Kenya Middlebrooks added seven. Winton had 11 at the break to lead all scorers. Brown had just six points at halftime but erupted for 22 in the second period.

Although the Penguins were turned away late for the second straight game against a top-tier team in the Horizon League standings, they showed a big improvement from their first game against the Vikings. Cleveland State beat YSU 86-65 at Beeghly Center when the teams played on Jan. 29. CSU outscored the Penguins 50-12 in the paint and held a 42-25 rebounding edge in that contest. Today, YSU outscored Cleveland State 34-28 in the paint and matched it on the glass with 30 rebounds.