Youngstown State University could probably describe this season in two words, up and down.  Thursday at Beeghly, YSU played a sloppy game and lost to Green Bay, 71-60.  Damian Eargle shined in the loss, but too many chances eluded the home team in defeat.

“We did not have a good effort tonight”, said Coach Jerry Slocum. “In fact, it was probably our worst effort in the last three weeks.  Tonight was a step backwards, it was very disappointing.  As bad as we played, at the media timeout we were only down eight and had the ball, but couldn’t execute.”

In the first half, the Penguins struggled from the field shooting only 37%.  YSU also suffered one of their worst halves from three-point distance all season managing to make only 2 of 12 attempts (16.7%).  Green Bay, holding a 30-23 lead at intermission, attempted exactly as many threes and hit two more than YSU did which was pretty much the difference in a sloppy first half for both teams.  Damian Eargle had 8 points and a pair of blocks, needing just one more to take sole possession of second on the all-time swat chart, which he got in the second half.  Rahmon Fletcher and Alec Brown had eight points each to lead Green Bay.

The Phoenix opened the second half on a 10-2 run and opened a 40-25 lead, but Youngstown State responded and cut the lead to 42-34 when Kendrick Perry canned a three with 13:26 left in the game.  For three possessions in a row, YSU seemed to have control of things.

Each time Youngstown State would hit a couple of shots, Green Bay would roar back.  Green bay was having a good game tipping in offensive rebounds.  With the Phoenix ahead 52-41, Eargle grabbed an offensive board and hit a reverse layup to cut the lead to 54-46 with 7:22 left.  Green Bay got a three from Bryquis Perine hit a three to extend the Green bay lead to 59-46 with 4:54 remaining.  The Penguins were losing on the mini-run exchanges as time was slipping away.

Youngstown State made a final push with three minutes to go, but trailed 60-51.  The Penguins would never get closer and ultimately played the intentional fouling game the rest of the way out in the loss.

Youngstown State was lead by Eargle who tallied 19 points and had 4 blocks.  Kendrick Perry (above) chipped in with 19 points for the Penguins who dropped to 9-19, and 2-15 in the Horizon League.  “We got on a run, then we would get lazy.  We dug a big hole early and couldn’t get out of it.  We thought we could just come in here after the big win against Bowling Green and pick up where we left off, but it doesn’t work that way”, remarked Perry, who is playing with a couple of jammed fingers on his shooting hand.

Green Bay got 18 points from Fletcher, and 19 more from Perine.  The Phoenix ran their series record against YSU to 23-6 with the win and improved to 14-16 and 8-9 in the Horizon.