Archive for January, 2012

The Youngstown State men’s basketball team (9-8, 4-2 Horizon League) returns home to entertain Horizon League-leader Milwaukee, Friday, Jan. 20, at the Beeghly Center. Tipoff is set for 7:03 p.m. (EDT) and will be broadcast nationally on ESPN3.  The first 500 students to attend will get a free t0-shirt.

This is the 30th meeting between Youngstown State and Milwaukee in an all-times series that dates back to 1972. Milwaukee owns a 24-5 advantage in the series and has won that last four games and seven of the last eight games. In the last meeting, Milwaukee outlasted the Penguins in overtime, 94-87, at the Beeghly Center.

Milwaukee is currently 13-6 overall and leads the Horizon League with a 6-1 league mark, including winning its last three contests. The Panthers are coming off victories over Wright State (58-38) on Jan. 12 and Detroit (84-74) on Jan. 14.  Kaylon Williams leads the Panthers with 11.3 points and 6.2 assists per game. Tony Meier, James Haarsma and Ja’Rob McCallum are also in double figures averaging 10.3, 10.2 and 10 points per game, respectively.

Senior Ashen Ward has been the Guins’ go-to player over the last five games. The Cleveland, Ohio, native averaged 18.4 points and 4.4 rebounds per game. He also shot 56.6 percent (30-of-53) from the floor and 58.6 percent (17-of-29)from 3-point range.

With two 3-pointers against Butler, junior Blake Allen recorded the 100th made 3-pointer of his career. Allen reached the century mark in his 47th game played, which is the second fastest in school history. Elmer Brown (1998-2000) reached 100 made 3-pointers in his 45th game.

Junior Damian Eargle has recorded a block in every game this season. He has posted multiple blocks in 15 of 17 games and has swatted at least three blocks in 14 games. Over the last four games, Eargle has tallied 19 blocked shots for an average of 5.3 blocks per contest. He has also posted at least five blocks nine times this season.

The United States Hockey League has announced that there will be a free online broadcast of the 2012 USHL/NHL Top Prospects Game, presented by CCM, delivered live on FASTHockey, the USHL’s exclusive online broadcast provider. The game is scheduled for Tuesday, Jan. 24 at the L.C. Walker Arena in Muskegon, Mich., beginning at 7:15 p.m. EST.

The game, which is the first of its kind for the USHL, will showcase many of the top USHL players eligible for the 2012 NHL Entry Draft. A total of 30 players selected are in their first year of eligibility for the NHL Entry Draft. Seven of the players are draft-eligible for the second time this year. In addition, the USHL will showcase three players who are eligible to be drafted by NHL teams in 2013.

The Youngstown Phantoms will be sending three players to the event: center Austin Cangelosi, center Richard Zehnal and defenseman Chris Bradley. Additionally, Phantoms play-by-play announcer Bart Logan will be part of the FASTHockey broadcast team.

Viewers can watch the webcast live via multiple formats – the USHL’s Facebook page, through a previously established FASTHockey account, or Roku users can watch the game on the platform’s USHL channel.

Every once in the while, something with a national flavor comes to the Mahoning Valley.  This year, sports fans will have the opportunity to catch the New York Penn League All-Star Game, which will be held at Eastwood Field.

The game will be played for the first time in the Mahoning Valley Scrappers team history on Tuesday, August 14, 2012.  The general public will have its first chance to purchase All-Star Game tickets beginning Monday, January 23, 2012 at 8:30 am.

Tickets will be available at the Eastwood Field Box Office, online at www.mvscrappers.com or by calling 330-505-0000. Ticket prices range from $10 to $18.

All-Star event tickets will also be available for Monday, August 13 for the All-Star Valley Gala and for the All-Star Luncheon and Post-Game Party on Tuesday, August 14.

Coach Bob Boldon said at the beginning of this season that his Lady Penguins would go through peeks and valleys as part of a long-term process.  Thursday’s loss to Loyola was just that, a game of transition.  Three years ago, trailing by 14 with more than a half to play resulted in 30+ point losses.  Saturday afternoon, YSU went back to the drawing board against a very good UIC team, and fought their way back into a game they appeared to have no chance at winning with three minutes left, forcing overtime.  The game was a valley, then a peek, then a valley again.  UIC took control for good in the overtime, hitting some threes and stopping YSU when they needed to as they escaped with a 77-68 win.

“Our kids did a good job today, even in the overtime”, said Boldon.  “Yesterday we had a good practice and they were just getting after it, so it was nice to see that carried over from yesterday.”

In the first half, the Penguins raced out to an 11-3 lead only to watch in evaporate.  A few minutes later, they were trailing 16-13.  Brandi Brown scored half of the Penguins points in the opening stanza pouring in 12.  UIC’s Taylor Foulks was killing the penguins with 14 first half points, going 4-4 from three-point range.  After 20 minutes, the Penguins trailed 30-24.  Foulks also hit a couple of key three-pointers in the overtime session to help preserve the win.

In the second half, Foulks hit another three that upped the UIC lead to 43-36 with 11:43 left in the game.  UIC increased the lead to 50-39 just under the ten minute mark when Jasmine Bailey pulled up and hit a jumper from the line. Monica Touvelle did all she could hitting a three to cut it to 50-42 on the ensuing possession.

Kenya Middlebrooks, one of the Penguins best shooters, spent most of the second half on the bench with four fouls.  Touvelle hit a three and connected on the baseline for two to cut the lead to 57-49.  Kelsea Fickiesen then connected on a drive that would cut the lead to six at 59-53 with 3:15 remaining in regulation.

Brown was determined to keep her team alive as she gathered an offensive board and made a shot to cut theUIC lead to 61-56 with 1:25 remaining in the game.  YSU used full-court pressure to add some heat, but UIC managed to get the ball downcourt and hit some foul shots down the stretch.  Middlebroks hit a three to make it 63-59 with 1:02 left in favor of the visiting Flames.  A five second call gave the Penguins the ball back but Fickiesen threw an errant inbound pass to turn it over.

Touvelle scored her season-high 14th point to make it a one point game on another three with 15.9 seconds to make it just 63-62.  Full court pressure caused a turnover on the inbound and YSU got possession with a shot to win the game.  Fickiesen was fouled on a drive and sent to the line for a couple of free throws.  After missing the first of two, UIC played ‘ice the shooter’, using a timeout.  Fickiesen hit the second to tie the game with 11.3 seconds remaining.  UIC brought the ball up but Fickiesen intercepted the pass and drove as far as she could before letting a hurried shot hit the front of the rim as the buzzer sounded ending regulation and forcing overtime.

Brown finished with 25 points on 11-16 shooting, she also hauled in eight rebounds for the Penguins.  Touvelle finished with a career-high 19 points and seems to be emerging as another weapon Boldon has with the ball.  YSU falls to 8-8, and 2-3 in league play.

“Our turnovers killed us”, said Touvelle.  “We are trying to cut back on them.  I had a big turnover in the overtime and we can’t make those mistakes and expect to win.  I missed more shots than I made, but my teammates encouraged me to keep shooting.”

For UIC, Bailey gathered 22 points and Foulks added an additional 23 caroms.  The Flames improved to 10-7 (3-3, HL) and looked like the better team until the collapse.

Probably the hardest thing that Anthony Noreen has to deal with in his day-to-day operations with the Youngstown Phantoms is consistency.  The Phantoms just didn’t look like themselves on Friday night, falling to Team USA, 2-1.  The Phantoms played much better after being handled rather easily by Team USA in earlier games this season, but just couldn’t get untracked with the puck.

“It’s extremely hard to be consistent in this league”, remarked Noreen.  “They are playing in this league to learn that consistency.  The difference between our guys and guys who play 82 games in the NHL, is that they are always executing and competing, night in and night out.”

In the first period, Youngstown raced out to an early 1-0 lead.  Managing only six shots in the first period, the Phantoms snuck the second of those shots past Team USA’s netminder, Curtis Frye.  Scoring his first goal as a Phantom was Zach Tatrn at the 5:31 mark.  J. T. Stenglein recorded an assist.  Team USA would respond on a Tyler Motte goal to tie the game after the first period.

The physicality of the game took shape in the second period as both teams pushed the pace and delivered some bone-crushing hits.  Matt O’Connor and Frye held their ground between the pipes and nobody recorded a goal in the second period.  Through two, the Phantoms recorded eleven shots on goal and Team USA posted 17.  Despite the lack of offensive fireworks, the game was entertaining because both teams were well-coached  and highly skilled.

“We are used to winning games when they are close”, remarked Noreen.  “However, we came much closer to winning tonight than we have in our other games against them [Team USA].  Our work ethic was ok tonight, but not good enough to beat an elite team like that.”

In the third period, much of the action was taking place in the Phantoms zone.  Team USA seemed like they could take the lead on several different occasions, but O’Connor and the defense responded with each rush by getting just enough of the puck to stop the threat or delay the process.  With just under nine minutes left in the game, Ryan Belonger stole the puck and got behind the defense, but never really got a chance to pull the trigger.

With 7:13 left in the game, Tyler Kelleher took the puck on the left side of the goal crease and quickly circled behind the net to beat O’Connor on a wraparound.  Kelleher’s goal was his sixth of the season and came on a rebound of a Connor Chatham shot.

“There aren’t many goalies in the league that could have stopped that shot, he [Kelleher] is one of their best players and that was really the first open seam they saw in the third period”, said Noreen.

The Phantoms (18-10-2) turned up the heat on offense the last five minutes of the game.  The home team finished with 17 shots on goal, while Team USA (12-10-3) had 27 chances.

These two teams meet again Saturday night.

The Youngstown State women are headed into the hardest part of their schedule, and it got off to a rough start at the Beeghly Center on Thursday.  Loyola built an early ten point lead and never led by less than that until very late in the game, cruising to a 82-77 win over the Lady Penguins.

YSU made it interesting late, but the Ramblers weathered the storm for the win.  When asked if his team may have pulled it out if there were a couple more minutes to play, Coach Bob Boldon remarked, “If it would have went twenty minutes longer, they probably would have scored 100, I’m not sure what we would have ended up with.”

In the first half, Loyola continuously took advantage of an aggressive Penguins defense by working the ball to either wing and throwing cross-court passes to wide open shooters.  Three-point shooting was the key to the Penguins woes on offense in the first half.  YSU shot a dismal 3-18 from long range.  Kelsea Fickiesen hustled for the Penguins  in the first half and seemed to be in a higher gear than her teammates.  Fickiesen had seven rebounds, three on the offensive end, to keep the Penguins in the game.

“We were not getting our shots to fall early on”, said Fickiesen.  “When you shoot and miss a couple of shots, you have to keep shooting.”

In the second half, Loyola’s Monica Albano, who torched the Penguins for over 50 points in two games last season, caught a little fire.  The Penguins did a good job keeping Albano in check with only two first half points.  However, Albano was able to score 15 second half points.  Every time that YSU looked to be making a move, Albano would make a shot or pass that contributed to the lead growing.

The Penguins continued to scratch and claw to that magic ten point barrier but could not get past it. Heidi Schlegel had a nice put back off of an offensive rebound, and then hit a three to cut Loyola’s lead to 50-37 with 14:10 left to go.  With just over nine minutes to go, Monica Touvelle hit a three to pull the Penguins to within ten at 58-48.

Loyola just kept answering everything the Penguins did right on offense with buckets on their next possession, almost on cue.  With 5:07 left, Brandi Brown hit a pair of free throws to keep YSU in the right neighborhood at 69-58.  Typical of the way the night went, the Ramblers scored on their next chance to nullify any Penguin gains.  Simone Law was eating the Penguins alive in the paint.

With the Penguins down 73-60, Brown caught a Kenya Middlebrooks pass on a fastbreak chance and scored.  Loyola again responded when Katie Kortekamp breezed to the hoop for an easy bucket.  Middlebrooks connected on a three with 1:35 left to cut the lead to 77-68.  Fickiesen hit a three with 23.7 left to make it a 79-74 game.

Youngstown State (8-7, 2-2) got 26 points from Brown, including an impressive 12-13 from the free throw line.  Middlebrooks and Touvelle contributed nine points each.

“You can’t make that many mistakes and expect to win”, said Coach Boldon.  “You get what you deserve.  We lost to a very good team, although their record may not show it.  They exploited our defense.  They were very well coached and their offense was significantly better than our defense..”

Loyola (7-9, 2-3) was led by Law who finished with 21 points.  Albano knocked down 17 points.  Troy Hambric had another 12 for the Ramblers.

The Penguins welcome a talented UIC team to Youngstown for a 2:05 game on Saturday.

Anyone who knows me would guess that once they opened this article, they would see a picture of Drew Brees and a prediction that the New Orleans Saints would be the NFL Champions this season.  It kills me to say that I am going against my heart and going with the weather.  Green Bay will beat New Orleans in the NFC Championship game, probably in a foot of snow.

To me, the NFC Championship game will be better than the Super Bowl if the Saints and Packers square off at Lambeau.  Some would argue that Aaron Rodgers is not a cold weather quarterback because he played at California.  Conversely, Drew Brees played at Purdue, where it snows a little more regularly than the West Coast.

The Packers have a tremendous takeaway ratio, best in the NFL.  Neither defense deserves to win a Super Bowl as they have both given up boatloads of points at a time throughout the regular season.  The best defensive team, other than Baltimore, would be San Francisco.  The Niners have been winning games, not by blowing anyone out, but rather by allowing fewer points than they put up on offense.

Nobody really expected Denver to beat Pittsburgh.  That all comes to an end as New England will blow Denver out this weekend.  The secondary stinks, but Tim Tebow is about out of smoke and mirrors for this season.  Baltimore should beat Houston.  Look for Arian Foster to struggle on the ground, narrowing the pass game of the Texans.

In the AFC Championship Game, I see New England getting by the Ravens to face the Packers.  In the end though, too much Green Bay offense against that horrid defensive secondary that the Patriots have. Tom Brady will pull out a closer game than anyone will expect against Baltimore.  However, the lack of a running game will help Green Bay better cover the pass.  Rodgers will be shooting fish in a barrel.

My Super Bowl Prediction:  Green Bay 47, New England 24.

PS, if the Saints should overcome the elements and upset the Packers, shame on me for going against my own team.

Youngstown State senior, Ashen Ward, became the third Penguin this season to be given Horizon League Player of The Week honors.   Ward is sharing the honor with Wright State’s Julius Mays.

The award is the first for Ward and marks the first time since joining the Horizon League that three different YSU players have won the honor. Junior Damian Eargle won the award on Jan. 2 and senior DuShawn Brooks captured the accolade on Dec. 5.

Ward helped lift Youngstown State (9-6, 4-1 Horizon) to its best start since joining the Horizon League, knocking down 7-of-10 three-pointers as the Penguins defeated Loyola, 68-64, before a 71-50 win against UIC. The senior recorded 21 points in the overtime victory on Thursday before finishing with 22 on Saturday, marking the first time in his career he scored at least 20 points in consecutive games.

In conference play, Ward is tied for fifth in scoring average at 14.6 points per game.

Tied with the Milwaukee and Cleveland State atop the League ladder, Ward and Youngstown State hit the road on Friday, Jan. 13, heading to Valparaiso (10-7, 3-2 Horizon) for an 8:05 p.m. ET contest on HLN. The Penguins wrap up the weekend at Butler (9-8, 3-2 Horizon) at 2 p.m. ET on Sunday, Jan. 15, with HLN covering the game.

Hot is a weak adjective to describe the way YSU played on both sides of the court in a 71-50 win over UIC.  The Penguins (9-6, 4-1) ran out to a 15-2 lead and never trailed in a game that they played like they should win.  With a stretch next week on the road at Valpo and Butler, the Penguins seem to be hitting stride at jut the right time.

Ashen Ward led a barrage of offense filled with threes and second chances.  Ward finished the game with 22 points, his third in a row with twenty plus, all wins.  It also marked a season-high for Ward.

“We started well and made shots”, said Ward.  “Our defense actually created chances for the offense.  Blake [Allen] did a great job pushing the ball tonight, Damian [Eargle] was setting good screens, and everyone was rebounding.”

At the half, the Penguins held a commanding 36-22 lead.  Kendrick Perry, steady as they come this season, had nine points to go along with four rebounds and four assists. Ward, DuShawn Brooks, and Damian Eargle all had seven apiece at intermission. Eargle also compiled three first half blocks.  For a team with no ‘big guy’, Eargle sure does play big.  The Guins managed a good 55% from the floor in the first half.

In the second half, Ward (above) heated up.  The Cleveland, Ohio native scored seven consecutive points on two threes and a free throw to give the Penguins a 46-24 lead with 16:26 left in the game.  Perry and Blake Allen ran a beautiful two-on-one fast break that saw constant ball movement ending with a nice alley-oop pass that Perry laid in.  That made the lead 55-28 with 13:14 to go.

“This is probably the best we have guarded since I have been here”, said Slocum.  “When the shots go in at a 57 % clip, it’s really pretty easy.”

With just over ten minutes to go in the contest and the result pretty well determined, Coach Slocum started to unload the bench.

The Penguins played balanced and unselfishly.  Ward finished with the most points, with 22.  Look for him to be named Horizon League Player of The Week by Tuesday.  Eargle was solid as he racked up 11 points, 7 rebounds, and 5 blocks.  Perry had 13 points, Allen contributed 10 more.

“Ash is our leader”, said Slocum.  “He’s the voice in the locker room, the voice on the floor, he pushes guys to practice harder, and he is probably the best leader I have had since I got here.”

UIC (5-11, 1-5) got 11 points out of Hayden Humes.  To their credit, UIC never quit playing and cut the lead to 64-47 with 3:33 to go, but the Penguins stockpiled enough wood in the shed to easily outlast them.

Kenya Middlebrooks scored 13 second-half points, and the Youngstown State women’s basketball team battled for a 55-48 victory at Valparaiso on Saturday afternoon at the Athletics-Recreation Center.

The Penguins led just 47-45 and had four seconds on the shot clock with 1:40 remaining when Brandi Brown hit a bucket in traffic on an inbounds pass. Valpo hit a free throw on its possession, and YSU went 6-for-6 from the free-throw line in the final 1:09 to pull away.

Youngstown State improves to 8-6 overall, which is its best start since the 1999-200 season, and 2-1 in Horizon League play. Valpo, which dressed seven players and played just six, dropped to 4-11 and 0-4.

Youngstown State returns home to host Loyola on Thursday at 7:05 p.m. The game will be broadcast live on 570 WKBN.

* Courtesy of YSU Sports, John Vogel