Posts Tagged ‘Vytas Sulskis’

Youngstown State faced off against a lesser-known yet qualitive opponent on Wednesday night at Beeghly Center. Robert Morris already had a victory against Cleveland State on the road and looked to knock off another Horizon League team in the Penguins. Free throw shooting (65.7%) and rebounding proved to be enough for Robert Morris (5-7 ) to prevail 72-67.

The Penguins and Colonials both seemed in and out of sync in the early moments of the game. Sirlester Martin hit a jumper from just inside the three-point line and a short hook off of the right line of the key to keep YSU down just one point at 5-4 with 15:46 left in the first half.

An Ashen Ward 3-point shot staked the Penguins to a 13-10 lead with 11:15 left in the half. YSU was doing a good job penetrating to this point and had the Robert Morris defense collapsing which allowed better looks from the outside.

The Colonials tied the game at 15 when Dallas Green took a lead pass in the paint and stuffed the ball with both hands. Karon Abraham added three when he was fouled and his reverse layup fell at the 8:21 marker of the first half. Vance Cooksey hit Eddie D’Haiti with a beautiful no-look pass to give the Penguins a 21-20 lead.

Abraham gave Robert Morris its biggest lead of the game at 28-23 with a 15-foot jumper that found nothing but the twine. Coach Slocum called for a timeout to regroup, but a couple of turnovers and cheap fouls prevented a momentum shift as the Colonials went on a 15-2 run to take a 35-23 lead with under two minutes remaining in the first half of play. YSU, however, managed to shave the 12 point lead to nine before the intermission and only trailed 38-29.

Karon Abraham was top banana on both teams in scoring with 14 first-half points for the Colonials. D’Haiti, Ward, and Martin had six apiece for YSU.

At the 16:25 mark of the second half, YSU had dug themselves into an 11-point hole that was going to be hard to crawl out of unless they started doing a better job rebounding on both ends of the court. To this point in the game, the Colonials were just a step ahead, winning the matchup battles and forcing YSU to take shots that they may not have been accustomed to.

A pair of free throws by Green reestablished the double-digit lead that the Penguins seemed unable to cut into. With 11:20 left in the game, the Colonials pushed their lead to 52-39.

Riding the hot hand of Ashen Ward, the Penguins finally sliced the lead to nine with 8:41 to go. The 6’3″ Sophomore from Cleveland first connected on a three from the left arc area, and then converted a steal for a good-hustling two. A Rob Robinson slam put the Colonials back in front by 13 just :38 later at 60-47.

Kelvin Bright’s dunk ignited the crowd and reaped the benefits of a full-court press that was forcing turnovers. With 5:08 left in the game, the Penguins had cut the lead to four points at 61-57 on a DeAndre Mays three. The pressure had the Colonials coming unglued.

Vytas Sulskis buried a three to trim the lead to one. The Penguins tied the contest when Sirlester Martin hit the second of two free throws. With four minutes left it was a new game as the two squads were knotted at 61 points each. The teams exchanged points and remained tied at 65 with 2:21 left in the game. The crowd was really into the game and chanting defense with every Colonials possession.

Abraham, who led all scorers with 20, first knocked the ball away from Cooksey and then converted a layup to give the Colonials a 69-67 lead with just :33 to go in the contest for his team-high 18th point. After Robert Morris converted the first of two free throws, YSU regained possession and Sulskis heaved a three for the tie but was an eighth of an inch short. With nine seconds left, YSU had to foul and Abraham missed the first of two. After he missed the second, YSU could not garner the rebound.

Robert Morris had 16 offensive rebounds to Youngstown State’s 8.  A dejected Jerry Slocum talked about a flat start and how turning the ball over hurt down the stretch.  “We came out and stood around in the first half.  I am very, very, disappointed.  We come back and take the lead by four and miss two wide open shots and turn the ball over twice.  If you want to have a season like we are aspiring to have, you have to make plays when the game is on the line.  No one stepped up and made those plays.  We gift wrapped it for them.”

YSU (5-7) returns to action Saturday when they face Cleveland State at the Beeghly Center.

It’s the kind of game that gets circled on every YSU magnetic refrigerator schedule handed out at the first home game. It’s the recruiting tool that potential players consider when making their choices. But most importantly, it is a game to gauge the ability of a team that thinks that they might just have enough to compete on a grander level.

YSU had tied the game at 42, but faltered down the stretch as Pitt came away with a 72-56 victory.  Free throws, shot selection, and defensive breakdowns were the difference over the last twelve minutes of the game, which the Panthers outscored the Penguins 30-14.

YSU jumped out to a 10-5 lead on a pair of DeAndre Mays threes, but Pitt used the shot clock to perfection, nailing a couple of their own threes with one second left to have an 18-13 lead at the 12:36 mark of the first half.

With 7:37 left in the first half, Pitt was using its arsenal of good guards to attck the hoop, knock down shots, and complete three-point chances. Brad Wanamaker (pictured above) and Travon Woodall completed drives to the hoop and each knocked down a free throw to post a 26-19 lead for the Panthers.

The Penguins used a 13-4 run to pull to 30-28, but Pitt would score the last four points of the half to hold a 34-28 halftime lead.

Vance Cooksey hit one of two free throws at the 12:26 mark of the second half to pull YSU into a 42-42 tie at a silenced Petersen Events Center. YSU, to this point, was playing terrific half court zone defense and outhustling the Panthers to many loose balls.

The hot shooting of Ashton Gibbs and Gary McGhee pushed the Pitt lead to 56-47 with 7:31 left in the game. Gibbs connected on a pair of threes and McGhee hit a pair of free throws and had a basket in the paint.

Pitt pushed their lead to 64-49 with 4:55 left in the game. Everything that YSU was doing right earlier could not be found over a five minute-or-so stretch. The offense was throwing up wild shots and the defense was not as aggressive as they were in the first half.

Pitt coasted the rest of the way to win the contest 72-56 to push their record to 119-10 all-time at the Petersen Events Center.

Coach Jerry Slocum was happy with his team’s effort in the first half but disappointed in the final result. “We missed some easy shots, did not shoot our free throws well and had some breakdowns on defense, and that was the difference in the game. Defensively, we played well for about 32 minutes. This is a great program with great tradition and you have to play a whole game to win.”

For the Penguins (3-3), Kelvin Bright finished with 20 points on 9-13 shooting from the field. Mays had 16 and was the only Penguin perfect from the charity stripe going 4-4.

Pitt was paced by Gibbs and Wanamaker who tallied 14 points each. Pitt (5-1) also got 10 rebounds each from McGhee and Nasir Robinson.

Big time basketball atmosphere on Wednesday night at the Beeghly Center. Youngstown State was challenging their second 2008-09 NCAA Tournament qualifying team in three games, Kent State.  The Golden Flashes took advantage of poor YSU free throw opportunities and walked away 70-61 winners in front of 4,000 plus fans.

Kent State looked powerful in the early going and held an eight point lead just 1:50 into the contest. YSU roared back to take a lead of their own, going up by a point with eight minutes left in the half. Eleven first half turnovers were probably a big difference in the six point deficit. With one half in the books, Kent State was ahead, 30-26.

The Penguins shot 39% on 9-23 from the field. Kent shot 44% on 12-27 attempts. Tyree Evans had 10 points at the half for Kent, and Sirlester Martin tallied eight points for YSU. With YSU only down six at the break, could a big crowd and some momentum give this team the second half boost they needed to get over the hump and win a big game?

With 15:49 left in the game, Kent State had a 36-31 lead. Eddie D’Haiti drew a foul and hit one of his two free throws and YSU forced a five second violation to get the ball back. After Vytas Sulskis sunk a pair of free throws, the Golden Flashes lead was cut to a mere two points. Sulskis then hit a layup with 14:24 left in the game to tie things up at 36.

With 9:25 remaining, Kent State took a five point lead on a big Anthony Simpson baseline jumper from 12 feet. From there, the Golden Flashes started to pour it on taking advantage of a poor Youngstown State shot selection and a couple of turnovers. Youngstown State finally ended the Kent State run at 13-0 when Sulskis hit a pair of free throws to make it 53-42.

YSU flirted with cutting into the lead, but hustle fouls on D’Haiti and Sulskis, their fifth each, kept the Penguins at bay. At the 2:49 mark, Kent held a 58-49 lead. YSU had one tactic that proved effective with about two minutes left in the game – a full court press.  However, the Penguins really struggled from the free throw line in the second half and ended the game just 19-28 from the charity stripe, many the front end of one-and-one situations.

Evans headed the Kent offense with 18 points.  Justin Greene tallied 17 and Rodriguez Sherman chipped in with 15 for the Golden Flashes.

Youngstown State got 15 points each out of Sirlester Martin and Sulskis and DeAndre Mays added 14.

Youngstown State Coach Jerry Slocum was vocal about the blown opportunities.  “19 turnovers and you give up 14 offensive rebounds and you are not going to beat a good team.  When you miss the front end of three or four one-and-ones, we count that as a turnover and you are not going to beat a good basketball team like they are when you do those kinds of things.”

Youngstown State travels to New Jersey for a Saturday meeting with Saint Peter’s at 2 p.m.  You can catch all of te action on AM-570 with Robb Schmidt.

Jerry Slocum has been coaching basketball at Youngstown State University for five seasons.  His program has made many leaps forward in that span of time.  A new state-of-the-art weight room, a clubhouse atmosphere in the locker room, and putting his recruits on the court with a little experience will all be telltale signs of YSU basketball’s forward progress.  Slocum is just a cool guy.  I cannot say enough good things about him or the way he processes information.  The guy is a genius of this sport and I think that YSU will make it to the big dance in March under his guidance very soon.  YSU fans take notice, we are lucky to have him here and the fruit of his hard work will become visible this season.

Paneech:  In your five seasons, you can finally put your stamp on this team as they are all your recruits playing with some experience.

Slocum:  I don’t think there is any shortcut to look at that.  Experience is what it is.  What comes first, the chicken or the egg?  Are you good without any experience?  I think you have to go through a process to get it.  Once you have that experience process in place, you start building towards winning.  Last year we had seven new guys, I thought it would come quicker than it did, but by February, we had a pretty good basketball team.  That kind of excitement has led into the Spring and the Summer.  Now we are into early Fall, and we are pretty excited about where we are.  You are what you experience, and I think that the experience we have gained will show this season.

Paneech:  Only losing two players from last year and having all this experience back you have to really be excited with the returning talent, the cupboard is stocked for the future too.

Slocum:  We have a tandem with three of the five with Dallas Blocker, Dan Boudler, and Eddie D’Haiti that I think will really play out and be a positive factor for this team this year.  When this class goes, everyone is going to look and say you lost all of these seniors.  We are going to have Ashen Ward return at the two-guard spot.  You are gonna have both three-men back.  You are going to have Damian Eargle back at the four, and Eddie [D’Haiti] coming back as a five.  We have alredy gotten verbal commitments from some kids, so in my mind, we have got the classes where we want them, we have got the kids coming up that are learning from the older guys and there is just a good attitude and symmetry that the group has taken.

Paneech:  Who is the team to beat in the Horizon League this season?  Did you take offense to being picked 7th in the preseason poll?

Slocum: I think there are two teams that are a cut above with Butler and Wright State.  Then there are four or five teams in the next tier, and I would put us in that group, anywhere between three and seven.  I maybe took a little bit of offense to being picked seventh.  Our league doesn’t respect us.  It’s like I say to our guys – respect is earned.  In the last two years we have finished fourth and sixth.  Did I think we would maybe be in that fourth spot?  Yeah, I thought so.  I think we finish third or fourth.  Being picked seventh shows that the league doesn’t have alot of respect for us and the pressure comes back on us to prove it.

Paneech:  Who are your go-to guys with five seconds left in a game, who takes the shot?

Slocum:  I think there are two guys that are pressure shooters and pressure players for us.  I think a bunch of guys can make the shots.  The two guys who can create a shot, follow their shot, and then maybe pitch it to a shot are DeAndre Mays and Vytas Sulskis.  Both of those guys are guys who can find a way to pick us back up with a big shot. 

Paneech:  When it happens, and it will someday, how big of a shot in the arm will it be for this program to appear in the March Madness brackets?

Slocum:  Obviously, it’s a dream that we all have.  To me, it wasn’t as much of a dream as it was a reality to achieve.  I think we are headed in the right direction.  Everybody talks about how you only have to win three games at the end of the year to get in, and I believe that to be true also, but, in the same breath, you have to be able to get to the end and have the confidence.  The way we finished last year should carry over into this year.

Paneech:  Is your group healthy?

Slocum:  Right now, we are healthy.  Every Fall, we do a little bit of a different approach to get our guys ready.  I’m not a big guy on coming in at 100%  top shape.  I think progressively, we get there.  Across the country, some guys get pushed too hard before their bodies are ready to take that kind of a pounding.  Right now we are healthy, and I am cautiously optimistic about our health.

Paneech:  Have you gotten comfortable with Youngstown as your home yet?

Slocum:  We love the valley and Youngstown.  My wife is a nurse at a local hospital.  This is home.  We enjoy the area, we enjoy Mill Creek Park, we enjoy all of the different things that are unique to Youngstown.

Paneech:  I am a fan, yet there are detractors.  Do you care about criticism or is it just accepted as part of the job?

Slocum:  It is what it is.  If you let those people govern you or disturb your thought process, then you don’t focus on your job and doing it the right way.  We knew when we got here that it would be a great challenge for us.  We knew that the recruiting hadn’t been what it should’ve been relevant to the Horizon League.  We had to learn Youngstown and how to recruit for YSU and the challenges of recruiting in a state with the MAC.  I don’t lose any sleep from all of the people that say things behind my back, or to my face about this criticism or that criticism.  I know that right now, the infrastructure of our program is higher than it has ever been and I know that our talent level is better.

Paneech:  How fun is it to play schools like Xavier, Kent, and Pitt?

Slocum:  I think it is fun for our guys.  In the time since I have been here, we have really changed our profile relevant to our schedule.  When you play schools like Ohio State, Maryland, Michigan, Michigan State, Pitt, Xavier, and Kent, it gives our guys the chance to play the best teams in the country.  It also gives you a measuring stick to get ready for your conference play.  We will contnue to do that while I am here.  I think it is a great recruiting tool and it allows our guys to dream a little bit.

Paneech:  Talk to me about riding a motorcycle and the trips you take.

Slocum:  I ride a Honda.  My wife doesn’t have a motorcycle, she just rides with me.  It really started in my youth.  I had motorcycles until I was 23 or 24 when we had our first child.  I went away from them for about 25 years.  Now that the kids are gone, I have picked it back up in the last ten years.  It gives us a chance to go and travel and we love being on the road.  We rode to the very top of Nova Scotia.  Next year, we are planning to go to South Dakota.

Paneech:  If you were asked to coach the Olympic Basketball Team, who would be your starting five?

Slocum:  Obviously, your top two guys would be LeBron and Kobe.  Kobe is probably the hardest working guy in the game.  My big guy would have to be Howard because he is so agile.  Bosh and Garnett would be there too.  The point guard spot would probably be Chris Paul. 

One Word Answers

Best All-Time Coach At Any Level:  Dean Smith.

Favorite Flavor of Handel’s Ice Cream:  (long pause)  Black Raspberry.

Mountaineer or Cedar Point?   Cedar Point.

Restaurant In Youngstown That You Have To Get To:  MVR Club.

Favorite Holiday:  Christmas.

Best Boxer At Any Weight Class:  Kelly Pavlik.

Favorite Group Of All-Time:  The Who.

A Short Description Of This Year’s Team:  Mentally Tougher.

Least Favorite Chore To Do At Home:  Clean Up The Dog’s Poop.

Can The Cavs Win This Year?  Yes.

Favorite Fruit:  Peaches

Best Movie Ever Made:  Patton.