Youngstown State returned home to play a game a few days after being trounced by Robert Morris, 90-60.  To make matters worse, one of the team leaders, Ashen Ward, would be inactive with back spasms.  The Penguins last played Malone in 1963, and won that game 117-81.  Monday night, parody showed 50 years of progress and the Penguins didn’t post such a lopsided number, but managed to win the game behind stellar efforts from Vytas Sulskis and Damian Eargle.

The first half saw a sluggish Penguins team establish their presence inside.  Only four Penguins managed to score in the first half. Damian Eargle and Vytas Sulskis combined for 25 of the Penguins 33 first half points.  The other two Penguins to get any points in the opening half were Tre Brewer with five, and Dan Boudler contributing three.  Malone held their ground and trailed by only two at the intermission with the score YSU 33, and Malone 31.

Coach Jerry Slocum was handed a pretty cheap technical foul (below) with 6:31 left in the first half to help Malone stay in the game on a four-point swing.  Malone was paced by Eric Coblentz’s 12 in the opening half.

Coblentz gave Malone a 41-39 lead when he buried a three for his twelfth point as the Pioneers, who shot 45% from long distance in the first half stayed red hot.  Eargle responded with a bucket giving him 16 points, a new career high, to tie the game at 41 with 15:49 left in the game.  Sulskis and Eargle continued to propel the offense which pushed the lead to five with 12:00 remaining.  Sulskis hit a thunderous running dunk off of the right baseline to force the Pioneers to use a timeout to regroup.

Eargle was a man possessed and created problems for the Pioneers all night long.  He was blocking shots, making passes, and scoring. Sulskis hit his season-high 20th point to put YSU up 57-51 with 9:45 left.  The pesky Pioneers were surviving behind the arc hitting 50% for the game to this point.  YSU held a 64-54 lead with 7:53 remaining in the game.

The Penguins took their largest lead of the game with 6:11 left when Blake Allen hit a free throw giving YSU a 12-point lead with 6:21 left at 67-55.  DuShawn Brooks was starting to feel it hitting his second three of the night and recording his eighth point to push the Penguin advantage to 14.

Sulskis (above) finished the game with 25 points, one short of a career high on 10-12 shooting.  He also gathered nine rebounds.  Eargle would have his best all-around game as a Penguin.  Eargle finished with 24 points and 10 rebounds, posting his first double-double of the season.  Eargle and Sulskis were virtually everywhere and played scintillating basketball.  Tre Brewer also recorded a career-high in both points (13) and rebounds (14).

Eric Coblentz played very well for Malone and finished with 21 points.

With the win, YSU improved to 5-4 on the season, but more importantly, seemed to pick up the pieces after a disastrous road trip in preparation for North Carolina State and Kent State in the immediate future.

Coach Jerry Slocum was reflective on his team’s effort.  “We got past the shackles of a hard loss and ran a lot of motion.  We played very well and regrouped.  That road trip we just came off of, every one of those teams did well in tournaments last season.  Heading to NC State and playing an ACC team will be tough, but I feel Kent State has their best team this season.  They will both be very hard games for us.”

Vytas Sulskis reflected on the night.  “Me and Damian are roommates and we had good chemistry going tonight.  We were finding each other and it wasn’t planned, it just worked that way.  I was hot tonight.”

Slocum praised the efforts of both Sulskis and Eargle as well. “Vytas played really well on both ends of the court tonight.  He and Damian toughened up on defense and we found a way to get into a rhythm in the second half.”