Posts Tagged ‘Kelvin Bright’

The season that Youngstown State started with so much promise came to an anti-climatic conclusion as the Penguins struggled to find their stride in a 62-54 loss to Detroit.  YSU celebrated Senior Day for players and cheerleaders before the game.  The festivities were short-lived as the Penguins trailed the Titans for most of the game.

Detroit was controlling the post game early.  With 11:27 left in the first half, Vytas Sulskis hit a pair of free throws to cut the Titans lead to 11-10.  Detroit’s Donovan Foster drove and nailed a soft kiss off of the glass to vault Detroit back to a three-point lead.

With 3:32 left in the opening half and Detroit holding a 25-19 lead, Ashen Ward buried a three for the Penguins.  After a Titan bucket, DeAndre Mays drew contact on his way to the hoop.  Mays would hit the pair of charity tosses to cut the lead to 27-24.  Thomas Kennedy was tough for Detroit in the first half with nine points as the Titans held a 31-26 lead at the intermission.  Vytas Sulskis was high-point man for Youngstown State with seven.

Kelvin Bright had a thunderous right-handed slam off of a nice feed from Mays to pull Youngstown State to within four at 41-37.  Detroit would score the next five points of the game to open up a nine-point lead at 46-37 with some help from Penguin turnovers.

With 8:57 to go in the game, Detroit jumped out to a 15-point lead.  Bright drove the lane and hit the floating finger roll to cut it to 13.  Youngstown State had a couple of good defensive possessions.  In one instance, Xavier Keeling was driving and released a prayer in the paint as he was falling that happened to go in.  On the next possession, Detroit got a bad-angle shot off with two seconds on the shotclock that didn’t hit anything.  As bad luck would have it, a Titan was right there to catch and release a layup off of a rebound as the 35-second clock expired.  Coach Slocum just threw his arms in there and his body language would say ‘what do we have to do’.

More bad luck for Youngstown State as Detroit had the worst free-throw percentage in the Horizon League coming into the game but were 17-20 through the first three quarters of the game, and finished 22-32.

With 3:37 left in the contest, Detroit had a commanding 57-43 lead in which everything seemed to be going their way.  Too much Detroit on this day as YSU bowed 62-54.

DeAndre Mays paced the Penguins with 13 points in his final Beeghly Center YSU home game.  Kelvin Bright chipped in with 11.  Mays (pictured) talked about his last home game.  “I wish it didn’t go down like this, but we have to make a push to do well in the tournament.” 

Detroit was sparked by Kennedy who finished the game with 15. With 32 trips to the free throw line, it is hard to compensate when your team only has fourteen chances, and that, combined with sloppy play spelled doom for the Penguins.

Coach Jerry Slocum had mixed emotions about Tuesday’s upcoming Horizon League Tournament game with Green Bay.  “We did not play very good today.  That [Detroit] is probably the hardest card in the league for us to matchup with because they are so big, just not good size matchups at all for us.”  Pertaining to what the Penguins could take with them into the conference tournament, Slocum reminded all, “The four games before this we battled with Butler, lost to a hot Valpo team, and lost two games at the buzzard to Wright State and UC Riverside.”

Senior Rebecca Sturgiss (above) cheers her last game on Senior Day.  Senior basketball players DeAndre Mays, Sirlester Martin, Kelvin Bright, Zack Rebillot, and Dallas Blocker played in their final home contest.  The men will travel North to face Green Bay in the opening round of the Horizon League Tournament on Tuesday night.  Good luck to all Seniors affiliated with a very well-run program.

Snakebitten.  It is a word often used to associate a series of events that seem to be going positively, but end up negative, aka, the worst luck.  When asked, after Youngsown State’s 76-73 loss to Wright State, if his team was snakebitten, all Coach Jerry Slocum could do was ask a question back.  “Do you think?” 

Vytas Sulskis pondered the question a little deeper.  “It is difficult to deal with losing so many close games.  I don’t know what’s going on, it’s like we did something bad to somebody.”

Youngstown State has been tough, but has nothing to show for it over their last four games, all losses, by a total of nine points.  Teams can sweat their way through these nailbiters against YSU, but be guaranteed that there isn’t a team in the Horizon League who wants to draw the Penguins in the upcoming conference tournament.

Thursday night, it was Troy Tabler, with half a second left, throwing up a prayer from the corner, with a hand in his face to extend YSU’s misery.  The Penguins will use these close losses as motivation.  In all likelihood, Wright State will be the #2 seed in the tournament.  YSU also played Butler tough.  Everyone knows they can hang, nobody wants to see the Penguins, who have yet to put together a full 40 minute effort this season.

Wright State jumped out to an early lead but Youngstown State went up 8-7 with seven minutes gone. Vytas Sulskis showcased his defensive skills as he pinned an attempted Raiders layup against the backboard for a nice block.

The Raiders jumped out to a 15-10 lead with 11:12 remaining in the first half.  Dallas Blocker, who played a good portion of the second half with a bleeding nose,  got a hard-earned bucket on an offensive rebound and putback to trim the deficit to three.

Todd Brown rattled off five straight points for the Raiders to bolster their lead to 22-19 with 7:58 remaining in the opening half.  Sirlester Martin, who had been struggling, showed signs of a big game when he first hit a baseline jumper and later hit a layup while fouled.  It was Martin’s first successful free throw in six games.  Martin then nailed a three with just over five minutes remaining in the half to give YSU their first lead of the game at 24-22.

YSU upped their lead to 32-23 on a Zack Rebillot jumper.  Ashen Ward nailed a three with 2:09 left putting YSU ahead 35-23. The Penguins played up to thier capabilities on both ends of the court in what may have been their most complete stretch in a Horizon League game all season.

Wright State (19-10, 12-6) battled back from down twelve to down three using a 9-0 run to close out the first half.  At intermission, YSU was in front, 35-32, and squandered their huge margin.  Martin paced YSU with 14 first half points and Ward chipped in with ten.  Wright State got nine points apiece from Brown and Vaughn Duggins.

YSU held a 49-43 lead with 13:49 left in the game.  Ward hit a pair of free throws to give him 12 points for the game, a career high.  Sulskis scored in consecutive trips on offense for the Penguins who maintained a slight lead at 53-51 with 11:07 left in the game.

Wright State nabbed their first lead of the second half as Troy Tabler nailed a three to put the Raiders up by a point.  Martin hit a bucket for the Penguins to reclaim the lead, but the way the Penguins were playing late in close games, more than a one point lead would be a blessing.

Wright State came into the game as the best free throw shooting team in the league but struggled from the line going 13-21 as Brown missed a pair with 3:46 left in the game which opened the door for YSU.  Sulskis took an inbounds pass to make a layup and give the Penguins a short-lived lead.  Brown atoned for his lackluster efforts at the line when he stole the ball, drove half the court and slammed the Raiders into a 68-64 lead with 2:57 left in the game.

With the Raiders in front, 70-66, and 1:23 left, DeAndre Mays hit a pair of free throws to cut the lead to 70-68. Wright State’s Ronnie Thomas was fouled after gathering an offensive rebound, but Wright State continued to kill themselves at the line as he missed both.  On the rebound of the second miss, Sulskis was fouled and hit both to tie the game at 70.  With the rebound, Sulskis posted a double-double, his second of the year.

Duggins buried a pair of clutch free throws with 43 seconds left to make it a 72-70 advantage for the visitors from Dayton.  Mays drew a foul with 37 seconds left and hit one of two.  Tabler was fouled for the Raiders with 28 seconds left, where he hit one of two to raise the lead back to two.  Sulskis answered with his fifteenth point to tie the game.

Troy Tabler then launched his game-winning prayer and threw up a high-arcing desperation three that found a way in.  Another late dagger which sent the Penguins to another close defeat, losing their last four by a total of nine heartbreaking points.

Coach Slocum commented on the devastating loss.  “They shot 32 free throws and we only shot 18 in our house.  Our kids played very hard and have been fighting every game over the past three weeks.  They have to keep their pride.”

Youngstown State University had to play with nothing left to lose.  After all, the Penguins dropped the first meeting 91-61 on January 16 and wanted to pick up some steam heading into Bracketbusters on Feb. 20.  Surely a win, or at least a good showing against #15 Butler shoud help compile confidence.

Half of the battle was won, as the Penguins made a respectable showing against the powerful Bulldogs ultimately falling 68-57.  Butler (22-4, 15-0) clinched the Horizon League Championship with the win and is very capable of advancing a few rounds in the NCAA Tournament come March. 

With 12:44 left in the first half, Butler raced out to a 16-8 lead, but Ashen Ward gathered in a long deflection and hit a cutting DeAndre Mays for a pair to cut the early Bulldog lead to six points. 

The Penguins cut the lead to one point at the 8:05 mark on a Kelvin Bright three-pointer.  Youngstown State was playing a great game defensively in the early going.  With Butler ahead 18-17, Mays nailed a three to give YSU their first lead of the game.  Vytas Sulskis hit another to put YSU up 23-18 as the large Beeghly Center crowd got loud.

The Penguins extended their lead to seven with 4:17 left in the first half when Mays hit a layup for his twelfth point of the half.  It was the first half that no one would have expected and the lead grew to eight.  Unfortunately for Youngstown State, things started unraveling and Butler used a blast of offense to take a halftime lead and had an 11-2 run to put themselves a point in front of Youngstown State at 31-30.

Butler took advantage of shoddy YSU ball control to start the second half.  Over the first seven minutes, the Penguins turned the ball over five times.  Coach Jerry Slocum commented on the poor second half start.  “We had five turnovers in our first six possessions in the second half.  This game was lost during those first seven minutes of the second half.  You can’t keep a good team like that down too long when you have that many empty possessions.  Another turning point in the game was when [Matt] Howard got his fourth foul and they want one big and four small, we did not match up well at that point.”

Butler was paced by Gordon Hayward (pictured) who finished the contest with 22 points and 17 rebounds, more than half of his team total of 31.  The 6’9″ Sophomore Guard was 8-9 from the free throw line and played a very well-rounded 36 minutes.  Zach Hahn seemed to keep the Penguins at bay down the stretch as his eight points all came at crucial times.

Butler Coach Brad Stevens was happy to escape with the win.  “This time of the year you just try to take a win, get better, and move on.  The guards and players for YSU scare every coach in this conference because when they get it going, they are really hard to stop.  They played a great game and it is a big road win for us.”

Butler heads to Cleveland State next for a Saturday matchup where they have had fits.  Youngstown State (8-16, 2-12) hosts Valparaiso Saturday night.

The casual college basketball fan would see that North Carolina Central had four wins and 17 losses coming into Youngstown State. What the casual basketball fan does not know is that this NCC team has lost to North Carolina, Iowa, Indiana, Miami (Fl), SMU, Ball State, Air Force, and Virginia Tech.

The Penguins had a balanced scoring attack and took good shots in getting by UNCC, 70-57.  The win snaps a four-game losing streak, but according to Sirlester Martin, the victory goes further than that.  “It felt good to get the win but it really helps us get ready for a league game this weekend.”

Youngstown State (8-12) did the right things according to their Coach, Jerry Slocum.  “We did the things you have to do to win basketball games.  When they cut it to seven, I thought we were patient and kept our composure.  We made free throws at important times in the game, and those are things you have to do to win.”

Dan Boudler tied things up at 15 with 11:51 left to go in the first half when he tipped in a partially tipped Vytas Sulskis shot. On the next possession, Sulskis hit a three that wasn’t tipped as the Penguins took an 18-15 lead with 9:41 remaining in the half, triggering an 11-0 Penguins run that would span over the next three plus minutes.

At the half, Youngstown State held a 32-21 lead.  Sulskis finished the first half leading the Penguins in scoring with eight points. Nick Chasten finished the first half leading all scorers with 11 of his teams 21 points.

With 11:28 remaining in the contest, YSU maintained their double-digit lead at 46-36.  Sulskis buried a three with the shot clock near zero giving the hometown the feeling that things were clicking.  Coach Slocum picked up a technical foul when he argued that an Eagles defender hit the rim.  Moments later, CJ Wilkerson hit a jumper to cut the Penguins lead to 49-42.

DeAndre Mays connected for three after the lead had been cut to four points to put the Penguins in front, 52-45.  Kelvin Bright was intentionally fouled meaning he got to shoot a pair of free throws and the Penguins retained possession.  Dallas Blocker got in on the action as he hit a pair of free throws to push the YSU lead back to double digits at 55-45 with 7:58 left in regulation.

With 3:44 left in the game, YSU pushed their lead to 64-47 when Sirlester Martin hit a 15-foot jumper.  CJ Wilkerson connected for his eighteenth points of the second half and had 26 in the game, leading all scorers, to keep his Eagles within striking distnace.  YSU thwarted any comeback when Bright hit a nice floating sweep through the paint.

Youngstown State showed good balance and poise in holding on for a 70-57 victory.  Balanced scoring for the Penguins translates to four players with at least 11 points and DeAndre Mays leading the way with 17.  For UNCC, CJ Wilkerson finished the game with 26 points.

Next up for YSU is Cleveland State on Saturday as the Penguins start to see Horizon League opponents for the second time.  Tip-off is set for 4:00 and the game can be heard on AM-570 with Robb Schmidt calling the action.

Youngstown State University had been struggling all season to maintain consistency. This year, the team has shown signs of being able to hang with anybody, and conversely being error-prone and careless while struggling.  The majority of Sunday afternoon’s game against Wisconsin-Green Bay was the careless version of YSU Basketball. 

Youngstown State fell to 7-12 (2-8 Horizon League) as Green Bay capitalized on poor second half Penguins free throw shooting and handled the Penguins, 69-55. 

“At one point, we missed seven or eight foul shots in a row.  We are playing as bad of basketball as we have played in the last three or four years and it is very diappointing to see us playing with such lifelessness”, was about all Coach Jerry Slocum had to say at the end of this one.

At the 7:48 mark of the first half, the Penguins were caught somewhere in between doing the little things needed to win and not doing the big things well. Green Bay had a 23-17 lead when Kelvin Bright connected from just inside the foul line with a nice fadeaway jumper to cut the lead to three.

With Green Bay over the first half limit, Ashen Ward was fouled grabbing a defensive rebound. Ward swished both ends of a one-and-one to pull the Penguins to a two-point deficit.  Troy Cotton, who had 14 points with 3:51 left in the first half, buried a three to extend the Wisconsin-Green Bay lead to 31-26.  Cotton finished the game with a career-high seven three-pointers.

At halftime, the Phoenix held a 33-30 lead.  Cotton was the overall scoring leader with 14 points.  The Penguins were staying in the game with good free throw shooting (11-14, 78.6%), a luxury they had not enjoyed often this season.

Bryquis Perine was whistled for a technical foul at the 17:39 mark as he and Dallas Blocker were doing a little extra-curricular pushing and shoving while jogging up the court together. The penalty would be insignificant as Mays missed both free throws and a walking call awarded the Phoenix possession to keep the score at 40-36.

Cotton hit another three, his fifth of the game, to stretch the Green Bay lead to 47-40 with 12:25 left in regulation. Rian Pearson hit a layup while being fouled, hit the free throw, and the Penguins suddenly trailed 50-40 in a game they had not held the lead in.

With just under four minutes remaining in the contest, Milwaukee pushed the lead to 16 points at 65-49, their largest lead of the game. Rahmon Fletcher hit a three in the corner to give the Phoenix the increased advantage. The Penguns were really struggling to find solutions to trim the margin as they had gone nearly eight full minutes without a field goal.  As the time clicked away, Green Bay (15-7, 7-3) maintained a comfortable cushion and turned back the Penguins, 69-55.

YSU welcomes non-conference opponent North Carolina Central on Wednesday night for a 7:05 tip-off at the Beeghly Center.

The lights just seem to project a higher magnitude when the words ESPN are attached to a camera. It is a treat to see Youngstown State play in a nationally televised game. It was also great marketing by the YSU Athletic Department to pack the house using reduced ticket prices. At night’s end, the Penguins could not pull out a victory, falling 69-59 to visiting Milwaukee.

Milwaukee held an 18-13 lead with 7:50 to go in the first half. YSU had earlier tied the game at 13 when DeAndre Mays delivered a perfect alley-oop pass to Kelvin Bright who slammed the pill home to absolutely rock the house.  Beeghly Center had not been that loud since the Kelly Pavlik fight in December.

Ricky Franklin hit a couple of consecutive long-range threes to jump the Milwaukee lead to 24-15 with 6:23 left in the first half. Franklin had already compiled 14 points and the Penguins needed to pay better attention to him.

The Penguins cut a little off of the lead right before the half when Ashen Ward nailed a three. At halftime, Milwaukee held a 31-23 advantage riding the hot hand of Franklin, whose trio of threes was pretty much the difference of a hard-played physical half.  YSU did not have a player with more than five points and shot just 1-10 from long distance.

At halftime, new YSU Football Coach Eric Wolford addressed the packed house promising that Youngstown State Football would be back on the map real soon and enticing the crowd to tailgate before the Spring game. Coach Wolford got a rousing ovation with all of his positive comments and is doing a great job promoting the future of football at YSU, especially the recruitment of local A-list talent.

The Penguins trailed 38-27 with 15:49 left in the game. Trailing by as many as 15, YSU started using a half-court press to rattle Milwaukee into committing a couple of turnovers.  Ashen Ward took the ball the length of the court off of a Milwaukee miss and layed it in as he was fouled. Ward also hit the free throw to cut the lead to 42-34 with 12:22 left in the contest.

DeAndre Mays got the crowd back into the action when he glided through traffic and hit a finger roll to trim Milwaukee’s lead to 45-41 with 7:28 left. Milwaukee went back to it’s most reliable source on offense, and Ricky Franklin again responded with another two points to make it 47-41.

With the Penguins down 50-44 with 4:39 remaining in the game, Mays again drove and scored. After James Eayrs converted for two to build the Milwaukee lead back to seven, Mays hit a three to cut the lead to just four points. Franklin responded again as he hit another three, his fourth, to re-establish the seven point lead at 56-49 with 1:59 left. Franklin finished the game with 21 points, taking high-scoring honors.

The Penguins went into ‘foul mode’  but Milwaukee was making the majority of their tosses from the charity stripe. Conversely, YSU could not score when they had the ball. The end result was a 69-59 Horizon League victory for the visiting team from Milwaukee.

After the game, Coach Jerry Slocum addressed the things that hurt his Penguins.  “We are not the type of team to take 27 three-point shots in a game, we took 20 more shots than they took and they had more turnovers.  We couldn’t make our shots tonight.”

Dallas Blocker had his best all-around performance of the season with eight points and eight rebounds.  Vytas Sulskis also scored 11 points and pulled down nine rebounds.  The Penguins will return to action on Sunday afternoon when they host Green Bay at 2 PM.

Eddie D’Haiti has endured plenty in the last few days.  Both of his parents were born in Haiti and he has many relatives and friends who still call the Hispanolia Island  their home.  D’Haiti has had contact with family since the January 12 earthquake which rocked the island and has claimed an estimated 200,000 lives, or 20% of it’s total population.  Relief efforts have been hampered due to aftershocks and difficulty getting to the heart of the disaster.  Meanwhile, back in Youngstown, a worried student-athlete can only pray for the safety and comfort of his own while trying to maintain some semblance of focus on his studies and playing basketball.

Paneech:  In what way are you affiliated with Haiti?

D’Haiti:  My parents are originally from Haiti.  I have a long history of family still living in Haiti as we speak.  From what I understand, everyone came through ok.  My grandmother, and all of my family and friends still there came through it.  It has been difficult to reach everyone back in Haiti because all of the power is down, so it is taking time.  I understand they are doing allright, but how allright are they?  Are they eating?  That kind of stuff.

Paneech:  Do you endorse a charity or a particular type of fund?

D’Haiti:  The easiest charity that I can ask people to get involved with is texting on their phones.  Alot of the carriers like A T & T and Sprint are offering a program where you can text donations, you don’t even have to get off of your couch.

***Ed. Note – By clicking this link, you can also donate used cell phones for recycling in which all proceeds will go to the Haitian relief effort.

Paneech:  Were you born in Haiti?

D’Haiti:  I was born in Orlando, Florida.  My parents were originally from Port-au-Prince and moved to Orlando before I was born.  I was lucky enough to go to Haiti.  Growing up as an American kid visiting Haiti, it was very cultural and fun, now it’s not the same. 

Paneech:  Talk about how you end up leaving Orlando for Youngstown.  It has to be culture shock when you look over your shoulder growing up and see Disney to looking over your shoulder now and seeing where there used to be a bunch of steel mills.

D’Haiti:  I love Orlando to death, it is just a wonderful place.  I felt it was very important to make a change in my life, I wanted to move out of state just to see more of the world.  When I came here on my visit, I really liked the campus.  The people were nice and the coaches were great guys and I wanted to be a part of it.  Youngstown, at least the campus, is a very peaceful place.  I’m really liking it and the people have been so wonderful here.

Paneech:  At the start of the season, the coaches and players of this team took exception to being picked to finish seventh in the Horizon League.  So far the team is playing like the seventh best team in the Horizon League.  What is the hurdle that the team is struggling to get over?

D’Haiti:  Once we can get over the hump, the sky is the limit for us.  I don’t want to say it’s mental or physical.  It seems like we don’t have all of the pieces to the puzzle in place yet.  Once we find those pieces, we can be rolling.  I came into this not physically ready, and that’s what I am working on getting better with right now.  I am learning so much from Dallas Blocker and Dan Boudler every day.

Paneech:  You pass well for a big guy.  Is it something you work on or is it instinct?

D’Haiti:  I believe it is a combination of both.  I like sharing the ball with my teammates, it’s no fun unless we all get some. 

Paneech:  What is the mood of this team right now?

D’Haiti:  We just want it so bad.  We’re not laid back, we definitely want to win badly.  We are just going after it and practice has been so much more intense.  Sometimes when we don’t get it and fall short, we grow as a team.  I don’t think we have the best talent in the Horizon League, but,  I also don’t think there is a team in the conference who wants to win as bad as we do.  There is alot of obvious frustration.  We are going after all of the little things and striving for perfection.

Paneech:  How much attention are you paying to the media coverage of Haiti?

D’Haiti:  I watch it every day, but I can’t watch it for too long because it makes me sick to my stomach.  Honestly, I can only stand watching it for about five minutes a day.  I just talk to my mom who has direct contact and she gives me all of the information as to what is going on. 

 

One Word Answers

Favorite Meal Of The Day:  Dinner. 

Favorite Breakfast Cereal:  Lucky Charms.

Favorite TV Show:  Family Guy.

Favorite Video Game:  I don’t play that much, I have more fun watching Ash [Ashen Ward] and Kelvin [Bright] play against each other.

Biggest Phobia:  Right now, the condition of my loved ones in Haiti.

Worst Habit:  Biting my nails.

Best Class You Have Taken At YSU:  Healthy Lifestyles.

Best Movie Ever Made:  Crash.

Who Was Your Favorite Disney Character Growing Up?  (laughs)  Mickey Mouse.

Who Was Your Favorite Orlando Magic Player?  I was kind of forced to be a Penny [Hardaway] fan.  I had the shoes, Little Penny.  Kevin Garnett is my overall favorite player of all-time.

 

DeAndre Mays was determined to help his team win.  He accomplished that goal and set a career-high in scoring with 30 points as Youngstown State got by Loyola, 71-67, in a very physical and hard fought contest.  Mays became the first YSU Penguin since Kesten Roberts (2006-2007 season) to score 30 in a game.

Up until the last possession , Sirlester Martin, Kelvin Bright, and Mays scored every YSU point in the second half.  Dallas Blocker ended the game with the last three points, his only scoring in the game, which turned out to be the winning margin, proving the old adage that it is not quantity but rather quality that matters.

Youngstown State jumped in front 17-13 on some good 3-point shooting. Vytas Sulskis, Vance Cooksey, and DeAndre Mays all dialed it up from downtown in the early going. Ben Averkamp was hitting mostly everything he was throwing up as his three tied the game at 22 with 6:24 left in the first half.

The Penguins and Ramblers had a few lead changes with the last coming right at the first half buzzard. Sirlester Martin gathered in an offensive rebound and released the ball right as the backboard lit up to signify that the time in the half had elapsed. After several minutes of the officiating crew reviewing the replay, the basket was allowed and the Penguins ended up with a 32-31 lead as a result.

Martin’s tenth point of the night gave the Penguins a 43-41 lead with 13:29 left in the contest. The second half was played very closely as neither team had a lead larger than four points since YSU led 17-11 at the 12:00 minute mark of the first half.

Over the next nine minutes, the Penguins would claim a 57-53 lead riding the shoulders of Bright and Mays.  Over that span, the Penguin guards combined to score all but two of YSU’s points (15 in all).  Martin chimed in with a 15-foot baseline jumper to push the lead to 59-53 with 5:44 left in the game.

Terrance Hill, who had no points in the first half, hit an uncontested layup off of a steal, for his 17th point. Walt Gibler stole an inbounds pass off of a full-court press and layed it in to cut the Penguins lead to just one with 1:50 left in the game. Hill then hit one of two free throws to tie the game at 65.  The Penguins seemed troubled by the press again, but were able to overcome when they needed to.

“We could have wilted when they tied the game at 65 and felt sorry for ourselves.  I think DeAndre [Mays] did a great job on the three-point play.  I was proud of our guys and we didn’t back up”, is what Coach Slocum said about the resiliant finish. 

Mays drove the lane and challenged a few Ramblers in the paint. The bucket counted and the foul shot put the Penguins ahead 68-65. Loyola quickly retaliated as Gibler drove the left side of the lane and drew a foul, hitting a pair of free throws to cut the lead to one at 68-67 with 20 seconds left.

(photo courtesy of Ron Stevens)

Dallas Blocker came up with a big offensive rebound and was fouled in the act of scoring a huge basket, his first of the night, staking Youngstown State to a 70-67 lead. Blocker knocked down the free throw to make it a two possession game. Loyola could not score as time ran out and YSU had a 71-67 victory.

After the game, Coach Jerry Slocum praised the efforts of his team.  “Our kids really battled these last two games.  People were walking around a week ago saying ‘who are you’.  I think you saw tonight who we are.  That [Loyola] is as physical of a team as there is in this league and we overcame alot of things in that game.  We made foul shots we needed them.”

YSU (7-8, 2-4) has two big road games next week at Valparaiso and Butler.  Loyola fell to 11-5 and 2-4 in Horizon League play.

Hangovers are usually the result of doing something bad.  People respond to hangovers in individual fashions.  Some folks sleep them off, some insist on being active, and others resume the activity which forced the hangover initially.  Whatever the correct remedy, YSU did not have it in their medicine cabinet in dropping a 70-48 verdict to Cleveland State.

Youngstown State Coach Jerry Slocum said his team did not handle the hangover of a loss, to Robert Morris just three nights earlier, very well.  “We had a horrible night and I am very disappointed in our performance.  We did not respond well to the hangover from the Robert Morris loss.  We had a couple of days and the practices were not very good.  Our intensity at home is not where I want it to be.”

Cleveland State used a full-court pressure defense early to force four YSU turnovers in the first four minutes. The turnovers mostly resulted in Viking points as they opened the game on a 15-2 run. Anthony Wells had seven points in the first seven minutes for CSU.

With 11:26 left in the first half, YSU found themselves in a 17-6 hole. Cleveland State was forcing the tempo of the game in the early minutes and once YSU established their offense, they were able to knock a couple of buckets down, but were not successful in slowing the Vikings pace in any way.

With 7:54 left in the first half, Cleveland State increased their lead to 25-7. Youngstown State was struggling with basic fundamentals such as passing and dribbling for a good part of the game to this point. 

With 2:55 left in the half, not much had changed. The Penguins trailed by 19 with the score at 36-17. Cleveland State was still using a full-court press and YSU was showing signs of breaking it, but could not institute consistency advancing the ball to the hoop.

Cleveland State enjoyed their biggest lead of the game going into halftime at 42-19. Jeremy Montgomery and Norris Cole paced the Vikings attack with nine first half points apiece. Kelvin Bright (pictured) had six points for the Penguins.

The Penguins opened the second half with an 8-4 run and forced Cleveland State to use a timeout. Sirlester Martin hit a three to pull YSU to 46-30, but Cleveland State called and raised with a Trevon Harmon bucket to reclaim a 22-point margin.

With just under ten minutes to go in the game, a pattern was developing. YSU would cut into the 22-point lead only to have Norris Cole hit a shot to push the lead back to twenty or more. With YSU trailing 56-34, and Viking big-man Jared Cunningham cranking one up from three, four Penguins awaited the airball under the hoop and none of them could collect a rebound, it is just the way things went for YSU on this night.

YSU never would pull closer than 15 points. Cleveland State dribbled out the last twenty seconds with a 70-48 victory to savor.

YSU was paced by Sirlester Martin’s 15 points and eight rebounds.  As a team, the Penguins shot 12.5% from three-point range and 36% from the field.  Bright and DeAndre Mays each chipped in with 11 points for the home team.  The Penguins fell to 5-8 and are winless in four conference games.

Cleveland State got 20 points from Norris Cole and 16 rebounds from Aaron Pogue. The Vikings improved to 5-10 overall and 1-2 in Horizon League play.

Youngstown State faced off against a lesser-known yet qualitive opponent on Wednesday night at Beeghly Center. Robert Morris already had a victory against Cleveland State on the road and looked to knock off another Horizon League team in the Penguins. Free throw shooting (65.7%) and rebounding proved to be enough for Robert Morris (5-7 ) to prevail 72-67.

The Penguins and Colonials both seemed in and out of sync in the early moments of the game. Sirlester Martin hit a jumper from just inside the three-point line and a short hook off of the right line of the key to keep YSU down just one point at 5-4 with 15:46 left in the first half.

An Ashen Ward 3-point shot staked the Penguins to a 13-10 lead with 11:15 left in the half. YSU was doing a good job penetrating to this point and had the Robert Morris defense collapsing which allowed better looks from the outside.

The Colonials tied the game at 15 when Dallas Green took a lead pass in the paint and stuffed the ball with both hands. Karon Abraham added three when he was fouled and his reverse layup fell at the 8:21 marker of the first half. Vance Cooksey hit Eddie D’Haiti with a beautiful no-look pass to give the Penguins a 21-20 lead.

Abraham gave Robert Morris its biggest lead of the game at 28-23 with a 15-foot jumper that found nothing but the twine. Coach Slocum called for a timeout to regroup, but a couple of turnovers and cheap fouls prevented a momentum shift as the Colonials went on a 15-2 run to take a 35-23 lead with under two minutes remaining in the first half of play. YSU, however, managed to shave the 12 point lead to nine before the intermission and only trailed 38-29.

Karon Abraham was top banana on both teams in scoring with 14 first-half points for the Colonials. D’Haiti, Ward, and Martin had six apiece for YSU.

At the 16:25 mark of the second half, YSU had dug themselves into an 11-point hole that was going to be hard to crawl out of unless they started doing a better job rebounding on both ends of the court. To this point in the game, the Colonials were just a step ahead, winning the matchup battles and forcing YSU to take shots that they may not have been accustomed to.

A pair of free throws by Green reestablished the double-digit lead that the Penguins seemed unable to cut into. With 11:20 left in the game, the Colonials pushed their lead to 52-39.

Riding the hot hand of Ashen Ward, the Penguins finally sliced the lead to nine with 8:41 to go. The 6’3″ Sophomore from Cleveland first connected on a three from the left arc area, and then converted a steal for a good-hustling two. A Rob Robinson slam put the Colonials back in front by 13 just :38 later at 60-47.

Kelvin Bright’s dunk ignited the crowd and reaped the benefits of a full-court press that was forcing turnovers. With 5:08 left in the game, the Penguins had cut the lead to four points at 61-57 on a DeAndre Mays three. The pressure had the Colonials coming unglued.

Vytas Sulskis buried a three to trim the lead to one. The Penguins tied the contest when Sirlester Martin hit the second of two free throws. With four minutes left it was a new game as the two squads were knotted at 61 points each. The teams exchanged points and remained tied at 65 with 2:21 left in the game. The crowd was really into the game and chanting defense with every Colonials possession.

Abraham, who led all scorers with 20, first knocked the ball away from Cooksey and then converted a layup to give the Colonials a 69-67 lead with just :33 to go in the contest for his team-high 18th point. After Robert Morris converted the first of two free throws, YSU regained possession and Sulskis heaved a three for the tie but was an eighth of an inch short. With nine seconds left, YSU had to foul and Abraham missed the first of two. After he missed the second, YSU could not garner the rebound.

Robert Morris had 16 offensive rebounds to Youngstown State’s 8.  A dejected Jerry Slocum talked about a flat start and how turning the ball over hurt down the stretch.  “We came out and stood around in the first half.  I am very, very, disappointed.  We come back and take the lead by four and miss two wide open shots and turn the ball over twice.  If you want to have a season like we are aspiring to have, you have to make plays when the game is on the line.  No one stepped up and made those plays.  We gift wrapped it for them.”

YSU (5-7) returns to action Saturday when they face Cleveland State at the Beeghly Center.