Almost 84 years ago to the day, the Youngstown State men’s basketball team won their first game.  The win was on January 14, 1928 against Clarion in a season that consisted of just three games.  Fast forward through a Great Depression and a couple of wars and the Penguins, still progressing forward, nabbed their 1,000th win against Loyola, 68-64, in an overtime thriller.

“I’m proud to be part of this program’s 1,000th win”, said coach Jerry Slocum.  “You have to recognize Coach Roselli and what he has meant to Youngstown and to basketball.  It is important that he is mentioned on a landmark night like tonight.”

In the first half, the Penguins did a good job defensively and scored enough to hold the lead for most of the half. Ashen Ward had the hot hand the first twenty minutes for YSU, hitting on 4-6 from the field including a couple of threes.  Ward led all scorers at the break with ten points.

“We believed we were supposed to win this game”, said Ward.  “We have to keep our confidence and stay with our routine and we should be alright for Saturday’s game.”

The Penguins shot a dismal 43.5 % from the line on 10-23 shooting.  Ward made light of the percentage.  “Coach will have us shooting a lot at practice tomorrow.”

The Penguins had the lead up to eight with just over two minutes to go.  Damian Eargle had three blocks in the first half, a half that the Penguins did not give up a single point off of a turnover.  The result of the solid defensive effort was a 29-22 lead at intermission.

In the second half, Loyola came out strong.  Ben Averkamp hit his fourth three-pointer with 14:02 to go, giving the Ramblers a 40-39 lead.  The Ramblers increased their lead to four points at 49-45, but the Penguins roared back on a pair of Eargle free throws and a Ward three to reclaim the lead with 8:50 left in the game.

Trailing 53-52, Blake Allen nailed a three to give the Guins a two-point edge with 4:58 left to play.  YSU got the ball down two with 44 seconds remaining.  Perry was fouled with 22.6 seconds left in regulation and knocked down one of two free throws to tie the game for the Penguins.  Loyola played for the last shot, which went to Averkamp, but he could not get a quality look at the hoop and the game went into overtime.

In the extra session, YSU trailed by two when Eargle was fouled while scoring but couldn’t hit the free throw to give the Penguins the lead.  Gibler took a nice feed for an easy two to give the Ramblers a 62-60 lead with 2:42 remaining.  Ward was fouled and hit one of two charity tosses to cut Loyola’s lead to one.  Perry made a nice drive with about two minutes to go to give the Penguins their first lead of the overtime.

Eargle hit a fifteen footer on the right baseline to give YSU a 65-64 lead with 48.3 seconds remaining.  On their next possession, Ward stole the ball and was pushed to get sent back to the line where the senior from Cleveland drilled both to put YSU ahead 67-64.  With Averkamp fouled out, Loyola was looking to Gibler for offense.  The Penguins figured that out and DuShawn Brooks hit one of two free throws to make it a two possession game.

Ward led the Penguins offensive effort with 21 points.  Allen tossed in 11, and Eargle contributed 14 points to go along with his 6 blocks and 9 rebounds. Kendrick Perry had a balanced effort with 4 assists, 13 points, and 9 rebounds.

Averkamp was a nightmare to defend causing problems by hitting from everywhere on the floor.  It’s tough to compensate on defense when the other team’s big guy is knocking down threes.  Averkamp finished with 23 points , Walt Gibler was Averkamp’s Robin, knocking down 26 sneaky points of his own.

“Those two big guys took us to school in the post tonight”, said Slocum.  “The kids played hard and it was an ugly game but it was not because of a lack of effort, they battled.  We held Averkamp in check from about the nine minute mark and the defense had some big stops down the stretch.”

YSU (8-6, 3-1) faces UIC on Saturday night at the Beeghly Center.  The Penguins then head to the road next week for games against Butler and Valpo.