On Senior Night for the YSU Men’s Basketball team, Damian Eargle and Blake Allen took the floor of the Beeghly Center one last time.  The good news was that YSU was 4-0 at home when playing an ESPN Bracketbuster game.  The bad news was that they were 0-5 on the road, so the bad news doesn’t count.  The trend held true as the Penguins coasted to a 86-75 conquest of Central Michigan.

In the first half, Eargle showed no sign of struggling with the mask on.  In fact, he seemed to thrive with it on.  The senior blocked-shot machine collected six quick points in the first six minutes of the game.  He also had a thunderous dunk that the hoop spit back out, but YSU held a thick 20-9 lead with 11:36 left in the first half.

The other inevitable downer of the evening was the Penguins playing without their leading scorer, Kendrick Perry, who suffered a knee injury during a practice that is expected to keep him sidelined until the Horizon League Tournament gets underway.

“KP will be reevaluated biweekly”, said Coach Jerry Slocum after the game.  “He hurt the knee in practice on Wednesday and I know it isn’t ligaments or an ACL, but beyond that, he will be reevaluated.”

The Penguins had little problems generating offense against Central Michigan and coasted to a 45-27 halftime lead.  The other senior, Blake Allen, picked it up over the last five minutes of the half and poured in eleven first half points for the home team.  Central Michigan got eight points from Kyle Randall, a native of Youngstown.

The second half started much like the first half ended.  Allen drilled a three on YSU’s first possession and the Penguins were off and running.  The Chippewas cut the lead from 21 to 12 points and trailed 51-39 with 16:18 left to play.

Central Michigan chipped further into the lead before Allen drilled two more three pointers to increase the Penguin lead back to 13 with 13:02 left to play.

YSU held a 12-point lead with just over eight minutes to play, but Randall dribbled through the Penguins as if they were stationary orange cones on his way to  a layup that made the score 66-56.

The Penguins seemed to be softer on defense with the large lead and Central Michigan cut the lead to just seven with 5:13 left.  Kamren Belin and Fletcher Larson hit a couple of big shots for YSU down the stretch to keep the lead bouncing in and out of double digits.

YSU got a strong final home game from Allen.  The Floridian finished with 20 points.  The other senior, Eargle, had a limited amount of minutes more attributed to fouls than coming back from n injury, but still scored 10 points, 3 rebounds and one blocked shot.  Eargle, who looked more like a masked WWE Superstar than a low post wizard, even hit a pair of free throws down the stretch.

“It meant a lot to me to play my last game here at home”, said Eargle.  “It was nice to know that the fans appreciate me as much as I appreciated them here through the years.”

Belin had a 20-point night, and a pretty thunderous dunk in the last couple of minutes.  D. J. Cole added eleven caroms for the Penguins.

Central Michigan dropped to 9-17 with the loss.  The Chippewas got 16 points from John Simons in the loss.  The Youngstown native, Randall, finished with 17 points.

The Penguins (16-12, 8-6) play their last two regular season games on the road at Valparaiso and Wright State.  Barring a disaster in which everything must go wrong for YSU, and everything els must go right for everyone else, the Penguins will be hosting a first-round Horizon League Playoff game.

The win gives the Penguins ten victories at home for the second consecutive year. Prior to last season, no YSU team had ten home wins since the 2006-07 season.

“I wish it was 12 wins instead of 10”, remarked Slocum. “You have to take care of home when you play 16 or 17 games on the road.  The fact that we did that made me very proud of this group.”

“I was very happy for the seniors”, said Slocum.  “We have been through a lot in the past couple of weeks with injuries to Damian and now KP.  This team has fought and battled and I can’t stress how proud I am of their effort.  There were some late nights trying to figure out how to deal with these injuries for the staff, we feel good about this win.”

The Youngstown State baseball team scored six straight runs to break open a 4-4 tie and beat West Virginia 10-7 in its first of four games this weekend at Wake Forest on Friday afternoon. The Penguins lost 8-2 to the host Demon Deacons in their second game of the day.

Junior catcher Josh White was 3-for-4 and scored twice, and junior third baseman Drew Dosch scored three times for the Penguins against WVU. The baseball team became the fourth YSU program to beat a team from a BCS conference this season. The football and women’s basketball teams beat Pittsburgh, and the men’s basketball team beat Georgia.

Blake Aquadro allowed four runs on seven hits in five innings in a winning effort over the Mountaineers. Lance Horner and Alex Frey combined to allow two earned runs in four innings of relief.

The Penguins will West Virginia again on Saturday at noon. They’ll wrap up the weekend against Wake Forest on Sunday at noon.

Youngstown State University, in the midst of a five game homestand, needed to make a statement.  Perhaps their biggest exclamation point, Damian Eargle, would not be a part of it.  Coach Jerry Slocum got big nights out just about everybody and his Penguins rolled over Milwaukee, 94-80, to improve to 15-11, and 7-6 in Horizon League play.

This was not a typical YSU basketball game.  With no Eargle, there was plenty of Fletcher Larson, Josh Chojnacki, and Bobby Hain – and they all contributed.  Perhaps the brightest star of the night for YSU was D. J. Cole.  Slocum has referred to Cole as the ‘silent leader‘ of his team this season.  Cole had his best games of the season pouring in 18 points

YSU took steps throughout the first half in their life after Eargle adaptation.  The Penguins got 15 first half points from Blake Allen who connected on three long-range bombs, but more impressively, showed he can take the ball to the hole a few times.  Kendrick Perry chipped in 14 first half points for the home team.  Milwaukee got 11 points out of Aaron Jordan, but trailed the Penguins, 48-36.

The Penguins exploded to a 20-point second half lead with just over 13 minutes to play.  Cole hit a couple of threes and the balanced scoring of the rest of the Penguins paced the solid effort.

“It’s about moving the ball around”, said Cole.  “We got a lot of good shots because we were throwing the extra passes and finding the open guy.”

With 11:27 left, Kamren Belin was fouled and hit one of his two free throws to put the Penguins ahead 72-53.  It should be noted that Belin had a lot of support from family and friends who made the trip from Georgia and Connecticut.  It was nice to see him have a decent game with so many in attendance.

Perhaps the best indicator that you are having a good night is when Bobby Hain spots up for a long three and drills it like he leads the league in threes.  On the very next possession, Belin forced Milwaukee to take a timeout when he nailed a three to make it 80-55.

“Just a great effort from our team tonight”, said Slocum.  “We gave these guys two straight days off because of the tough stretch of games we had earlier.  The rest did wonders for us, we came out fresh tonight and made good shots.”

The display of offense was a microcosm of how well the team performed without the top shot blocker in Horizon League history watching from the bench.  One better, the performance was praiseworthy in justifying all of the times that Slocum has been maligned for not using the bench properly.  Other than Allen and Perry, the role players all played a strong role and the bench never looked deeper in the win.

For the Penguins, Perry (above) spearheaded the offensive fireworks as he poured in 28 points and gathered 5 assists.  Allen finished with 17, and Belin had a quiet 15 points.  The Penguins face Green Bay on Sunday.

Eargle will not play Sunday and will be reevaluated next week.

Milwaukee (6-21, 2-11) got 17 out of Aaron.  Paris Gulley also scored 18 for the Panthers, who are struggling this season.

“Milwaukee could be one of the best teams we will face all year”, declared Slocum.  “They have a 7’2” center that is projected to be drafted 15th or 16th.  They have a jet guard, and we really have to shoot the ball well to have a chance to win.

Regardless of the outcome of the Milwaukee at Youngstown State University basketball game Friday, 35-40 people had fun.  The YSU Student Athletic Advisory Committee hosted a field day for many Special Olympians.

YSU athletes from several different sports programs showed their hearts in a big way. Kurt Hess was painting faces (above).  Michael Klaus was a bit apprehensive about the makeover but with some urging, yielded to allow Hess to show his creative stroke.

In another section of the Beeghly Center lobby, there was a game of shuffleboard.  In another area, several were engaged in an arts and crafts session.  There were T-shirts for the participants too.

“It’s a great way to give back to the community”, said Torrian Pace.  “This is how to be a positive role model and to lift the spirits of people who sometimes get talked down.  It is a special day for the visitors, but all of the student athletes helping out see it as a special day too.”

The event, coordinated by Bre Romeo and Emily Wollet, was a huge success and any casual observer to the game who caught a glimpse of the activities was touched.

In the midst of a five-game homestand, perhaps the most crucial stretch of the season for YSU, the Penguins rode Blake Allen into the record book, but failed to hit free throws at critical times in an 88-83, triple overtime loss.

“This is  hard one to take”, said Slocum.  “We played well enough to win, but poorly enough to lose.  We met the enemy tonight, and the enemy was ourselves.”

The first half was outright sloppy.  YSU was winning 1-0 at the 15:00 mark and trailed 4-3 with eleven minutes to go in the half – neither team was hitting shots.  The Penguins mustered enough offense to take a 19-16 lead to the locker room at the break.

Kamrin Belin hit a couple of threes and a free throw to put up seven first half points for the home team.  Gary Talton posted five first half points for UIC, who as a team managed to shoot 27.5% from the field.  In contrast, YSU shot only 25%.

In the second half, UIC tied the game at 21 each when Talton drove, hit a bucket, and drew a foul on Blake Allen.  Talton would hit the free throw to give UIC their first lead of the second half at 22-21 with 17:01 left in the game.

Belin seemed like the go-to guy for the Penguins.  After he missed a three, he gathered his own rebound, put up a shot, grabbed that miss and tipped it in while being fouled to tie the game at 25.

The Flames seemed to have a size advantage in the paint with big Josh Crittle (above).   Damian Eargle had his hands full with the bulky low-post presence of Crittle.  Coach Slocum was moving Bobby Hain in and out of the game to deal with Crittle when possible.

A pair of Allen three-pointers put YSU ahead 33-29, but the Flames went back to Crittle in the low post who rumbled to the hoop for an easy deuce.  Allen, however, was feeling it in the second half and posted his third three, this time he was fouled as it dropped.  Allen converted the free throw to put YSU up 37-31 with 11:59 to play.

Allen set the school record for threes with the make.  The new record of 200 threes made, broke the record of 198 which was held by Craig Haese from 1997-2001.  Currently, Allen ranks second in the Horizon League with 63 three-pointers.

“I am proud of Blake”, said Slocum.  “He is probably the hardest working player I have ever coached.”

UIC wasn’t having any compassion for the record book and trailed by eight, but managed to tie the game at 68 with 6:52 left to play.  Daniel Barnes completed an old-fashioned three point play for the Flames.

Kendrick Perry (below) hit a big three with just under two minutes left to give YSU a 57-53 lead.  UIC would answer and YSU had the ball back with a two point lead and 44 seconds remaining but failed to get a quality shot.  UIC got the ball back with 19.3 seconds left.  After a couple of timeouts, Talton hit a runner with .8 left in the game to force overtime.

Free throw shooting would spell doom for the Penguins in the overtime.  D. J. Cole had a chance to cut into three-point lead with a pair of free throws, but only made one of two.  Later, Eargle, who finished the game 1-9 from the line missed a pair.

Perry rode in on his white horse to hit a three with .1 seconds to play and force a second overtime.  The junior forward had a hand in his face and was floating right to left in the air when he released the game-tying bomb.

In the second overtime, Cole drove for a bucket, and then Perry hit a couple of free throws to make it 70-66 with 3:37 left to play.  With just over a minute left to play, Perry hit a couple more free throws, but a UIC three tied the game at 72.  That’s the way the second overtime would end.

In overtime number three, Crittle appeared to pick up his fifth foul, but the refs conferred and said the foul would be charged to Hayden Humes instead.  The reason this was significant was because the Penguins wasted a whole timeout planning something without Crittle around.  Eargle missed both free throws, and then Crittle hit a pair to put UIC on top 78-74.

Perry drove, scored, and got fouled.  With 1:05 left in the game, Perry hit the charity toss to make it a 78-77 UIC lead.  Barnes then hit a dagger three to make it 81-77.  The Penguins would not convert on the next possession and went into foul mode.   On an intentional foul, Eargle appeared to have caught an unintentional elbow that may have broken his nose.

Trailing by four with 16 seconds left, YSU forced a turnover on an inbounds pass but failed to convert and UIC was able to cap the marathon.

YSU (14-11, 6-6) got 16 points from Allen in his record-setting performance.  Belin had a good offensive game contributing 14 points. Perry raked in 29 points and Eargle had 5 points, 7 rebounds, and 4 steals

For UIC, Talton had 23 points, Barnes finished with 20, and Crittle knocked in 18.  With the win, UIC improved to 15-10, 6-6 in league play.

Since early December, Jake Giuriceo has been inactive.  Giuriceo took a vicious head butt in his last fight that caused a detached retina and left an uncertain future in the sport he loves.

The butt came against Peter Oluoch on a December 1 card at Mountaineer.

Since December, “The Bull” has successfully undergone surgery to correct the retina, but will not be cleared until the second part of the process happens.

“I have to have cataract surgery now”, said Giuriceo.  “I go see the doctor on February 13, that is my next step.”

If Giuriceo gets clearance he said he is leaning toward continuing his career.

“I miss it.  I am jogging and shadow boxing to stay in shape, but I really love boxing and hope to be able to come back.  It’s in the Lord’s hands.”

Giuriceo will turn 28 on February 25th, an age too young to retire from boxing in his mind.

“Just about everyone is saying that it is enough and that I should probably retire.  My wife is on the same page with me and I really don’t feel like it is over”, said Giuriceo.

The Bull also touched on the recent retirement of Kelly Pavlik.

“I have been very happy to see a Youngstown guy do so well”, said Giuriceo.  “He can’t get the fights he wants, so basically he is walking away.  I wanted to see him fight for another title, but if nobody wants to give him a good shot at a big fight, he did the right thing by choosing to not beat himself up over smaller paydays.  He really did a lot for this area.”

Giuriceo (16-2-1) is still the same person he was, staying in great shape and currently tipping the scales at 154, and remaining a busy guy.  With his future in boxing in question, he hasn’t changed much in his daily routine.

“I still get up and go to work”, said Giuriceo.  “I come home and still work out.  My wife and I are looking to buy a house in the area and have been busy with that.  I also continue going to church and my Bible study on Sundays and Wednesdays.”

So for now, Giuriceo awaits some big decisions which he has no control of.  If he gets the green light from the medics, he would probably stop at the gym to spar on his way home.  The waiting game is in session and The Bull can almost see red again.

Youngstown State University seems to be getting a grip on this whole basketball thing lately.  The Penguins played a fantastic defensive game against league-leading Valparaiso and came away with an 80-68 win.  Kendrick Perry spearheaded the charge with 28 points but had plenty of help on both sides of the court.

To say the Penguins were able to play physical in the post would be an understatement in the win.  Damian Eargle, Bobby Hain, Cameron Belin, and the rest of the Penguins did a fantastic job of taking Kevin Van Wijk and Ryan Broekhoff out of their usual dominant rhythm that has driven the Crusaders all season.

“It really was a great effort defensively”, said Slocum.  “Our guys really gutted it out and played well.  It was just a great team effort, probably as good as we have had all year.

In the first half, YSU really did a nice job of guarding the perimeter and the paint.  When Valpo would try to kick the ball out, a Penguin would be waiting.  When Valpo tried to feed the low post, they were met with heavy resistance – each trip down the floor.  Nothing came easy for the Crusaders.  YSU got six points out of Kendrick Perry and six more from Belin (below) in the half.

The Penguns took a 39-28 lead into the half.  Valpo never had a lead in the entire game as YSU started on a 12-4 run.  From that point on, Jerry Slocum seemed to hit all of the right buttons and was able to maintain that large of a lead throughout the opening half.

In the second half, more of the same from YSU.  The Penguins had a 44-33 lead with 16:46 left to play and had maybe their two shakiest possessions of the game to that point, but Valparaiso was unable to gain any significant ground.  With 11:21 left in the game, Shawn Amiker took a nice feed and connected on a bunny while drawing a foul.  Amiker hit the free throw to increase the lead to 54-41.

Slocum knew the sun was shining on his team as Ryan Weber, who entered the game 1-16 from three-point range, buried a big three to increase the Penguin lead to 14.

Valpo would not go away quietly.  With a shade over five minutes left in the game, the YSU lead was whittled to ten points at 65-55.  Blake Allen nabbed a huge offensive rebound in which the Penguins got a fresh clock and capped off with a Belin three to push the lead back to 13.

Perry remained the heart of the YSU offense.  The junior tallied 28 points and snared 11 rebounds.  Belin added 15 points, and Eargle played another well-rounded game on both ends, with  for the upstart Penguins (13-8, 5-3).  YSU started conference play 1-3, but have since rattled off four straight to get back into the big picture.

“We were feeding off of the energy of this crowd tonight”, said Perry.  “The fans were booing the refs when they made bad calls, they were cheering us when we made our shots, they were really loud tonight.”

Van Wijk ended the game with 14 points for the Crusaders who dropped to 6-2 in the conference and 16-6 overall.  Broekhoff added 10, but those totals are well below the numbers those two have been putting up this season.

“KP was very special tonight”, said Slocum at the post-game press conference.

YSU will now head to Detroit for a Friday rematch with the Titans who destroyed YSU by 41 the last time they met on January 10.

When asked if his Penguins would head to Michigan with a chip on their shoulders, Slocum responded, “We are a much different basketball team now.  We are really looking forward to the challenge of going there to play, hopefully we have enough in the tank physically to play our best.”

“We will definitely have a chip on our shoulders”, said Perry.

She has been doing it since she was a freshman at Youngstown State.  She has dominated statistics of all varieties from an individual level.  Brandi Brown has collected her third Horizon League Player of The Week award this season, and she would be the first one to tell you that the award means nothing unless her team is winning.

Brown and her Penguin teammates defeated Cleveland State and Loyola last week.  In the two wins, the senior averaged 26 points and 16.5 rebounds.

Brown had 28 points and 17 rebounds in YSU’s 72-63 win at Cleveland State, YSU’s first victory at the Wolstein Center since 2006. Brown then had 24 points and 16 rebounds in just 28 minutes as Youngstown State beat Loyola 75-38 for its largest margin of victory in a Horizon League game. Brown shot 50 percent from the field in the two games and broke YSU’s career records for free throw makes and free throw attempts.

Brown was also named the Horizon League and High-Major Player of the Week by CollegeSportsMadness.com. The High-Major division includes teams from the Atlantic 10, the CAA, Conference USA, the Horizon League, the MAC, the Missouri Valley, the Mountain West, the WAC and the West Coast conferences.

Brown and the Penguins will play at UIC on Thursday and at Wright State on Sunday this week.

Youngstown State University Coach, Jerry Slocum, has said more than once that his Penguins needed to learn to be a better team at home.  Against a quality team like Wright State, the Penguins delivered their best effort, which was plenty.  The Penguins used a complete arsenal on the Raiders to claim a very satisfying 68-61 win on their home floor.

“This was a classic Horizon League game”, said Slocum.  “I am happy that everyone who was here finally got to see what I have gotten to see on the road.  It was not a perfect game and we did turn the ball over 18 times, but we played very tough.”

In the first half, YSU did a good job with fundamentals.  The ‘Guins shot 75% from the line, saw balanced scoring, and did a really good job rotating on defense.  In the entertaining first half, YSU had a lead as big as six at the 5:10 mark.  Wright State kept bouncing back, however.  When the smoke cleared, it was YSU that headed to the locker room with a 28-25 lead.

The thing to keep in mind about this Wright State team was that it shows tremendous balance.  No starter for the Raiders averaged more than 11.4 points per game.  This was a true “team” and a tough opponent who only lost once in six league games.  Credit Slocum and staff for doing a good job keeping the defensive assignments straight.

With the Penguins ahead, 38-33, D.J. Cole hit a three from the left wing to give the Penguins their largest lead of the game at 41-33.  After a Raider timeout, the Penguins went back to work and used a full shot clock as Cole found Blake Allen for an easy layup.

Cole Darling connected on a pair of free throws for Wright State with 11:49 left in the game to make it a 43-37 lead.  The suddenly combustible Penguins then turned the ball over.  Jerran Young hit one of the free throws to make it a five point game.  Kamren Belin hit a big bucket to give the Penguins a more comfortable lead at 45-38.

Wright State had cut the lead to 46-42 with 6:40 left to go.  Allen drilled a three from the top of the key to snuff out the Raider rally and put the Penguins up 49-42.  Belin then connected on a pair of charity tosses to push the lead back to nine.  Allen then drilled another three to extend the lead to 12, the largest of the game, with 4:39 left to play.

The Penguins got another solid effort from Damian Eargle.  The all-time Horizon League leader for blocked shots added to his total with 5 stuffs.  He also scored 18 points and gathered 6 rebounds.

“It was a tough game”, said Eargle.  “They have no one player to stop and have a very good team, so you never now who could beat you.  It was definitely hard to prepare.”

The Penguins (11-8, 3-3) got another good game out of Allen, who finished with 17 points, 15 coming in the second half.  His buddy from Florida, Kendrick Perry, added 14 points.  Belin had a nice game off of the bench and chipped in with ten.

Wright State got 18 points from Young.  The Raiders fell to 5-2 in the conference and 14-6 overall.

The Penguins are at home for two more games against Cleveland State on Saturday and Valparaiso next Wednesday.

Slocum commented on the upcoming matchup against Cleveland State.  “Obviously, that game has meaning.  They will come in and play tough, and you know it may not be pretty, but it will be a fight.”

Speaking with Kelly Pavlik, nothing in the immediate future is set in stone.  In fact, the former middleweight champion says nothing, as far as he knows, is even in negotiation.

“You probably know more than I do”, said Pavlik (40-2, 34 KO’s).  “I am just trying to train and stay fight-ready so when I get the call, I will be ready.”

Pavlik has had a good bit of in-ring action to shake the rust with wins over inferior competition.  In his last three fights, ‘The Ghost’ has three different results, despite winning all of them.

Aaron Jaco was knocked out convincingly in the second round.  Then Scott Sigmon lasted longer than most thought he would until the referee stopped that fight in the seventh round.

On July 7, Pavlik faced a game Will Rosinsky, and came away with a unanimous ten-round decision.  This was to be his final setup for a bigger payday and tougher opponent.  The names of Carl Froch, Andre Ward, and Lucian Bute, all surfaced as big-name opponents.

Ward took the steps and the deal was signed, but he injured his shoulder for what could have been Pavlik’s shot at regaining the limelight.

Interestingly, with Manny Pacquiao losing his last fight, the sport needs back some of the faces that people actually watch.  There is constant turnover in boxing, but the critical period it is enduring right now needs star power.

Love him or hate him – people watch Kelly Pavlik.

“I wanted to stay active and hopefully we will get something done real soon.  When I know, you will too”, promised Pavlik.