MEN'S BASKETBALL YSU now has seven losses -- all on road

The Penguins dropped a 68-53 decision at Missouri-Kansas City to fall to 2-7.
STAFF/WIRE REPORT
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Youngstown State men's basketball coach John Robic plans to enjoy Christmas with his family and then he'll start worrying about his team again.
The Penguins suffered their seventh defeat Saturday against University of Missouri/Kansas City 68-53 before over 3,000 fans at Municipal Auditorium.
The Penguins, now 2-7 with all seven losses coming on the road, have one more road game remaining, at Western Illinois on Dec. 30.
"The first thing I'm going to do when I get back home is enjoy Christmas with my family," said Robic. "That's exactly what I told the kids after the game. Then we'll get back to basketball, and if we're willing to work hard in practice, we are still going to surprise a few people this season.
"I told the kids that they can hold their heads up high when they walk out of here tonight," Robic said. "I thought they played very hard against a very good UMKC team. I can't wait until we can get four seniors into the starting lineup.
"We just couldn't find a basket at times tonight, especially in the first half, but overall I saw improvement over our last game."
Poor shooting: The Penguins only shot 34.7 percent from the field, while UMKC hit on 45.6 percent.
Senior Ryan Patton led the Penguins with 16 points, while sophomore TeJay Anderson, playing only his second game, added 11 points. Senior Stephen Flores chipped in with nine and freshman Jimmy Moore was the top rebounder with seven.
UMKC was led by sophomore Michael Watson with 18 points, 12 of them coming from 3-point range, while 6-9 junior Tom Curtis added 12 points and had 12 rebounds. UMKC out-rebounded the Penguins 35-31.
The Penguins started three freshman, a first for Robic, as Doug Underwood, Jimmy Moore and Brian Radakovich all began the game.
Youth maturing: "The freshmen are the cornerstones of this team, and as long as they continue to work hard in practice they are going to get the minutes in the game," Robic said.
The Penguins started out well as they built an 8-4 lead in the first five minutes, but then they went over seven minutes without scoring to put themselves in a hole.
The Kangaroos (7-2) reeled off 12 straight points and jumped to a 16-8 advantage. YSU didn't score until seven minutes remained when Anderson scored his first basket of the game.
YSU trailed by 11 points, 21-10, with 4:50 remaining but then battled back. When Anderson made two free throws with 1:55 remaining, the Penguins trailed by just five, 25-20.
UMKC held a 29-21 halftime lead.
Pulled within six: The Penguins couldn't put any kind of run together the entire game, but managed to get to within six points, 34-28, before the Kangaroos bounced right back to a 40-28 margin.
The Penguins got to within seven points one last time, 40-33, before UMKC began pulling away.
Saturday's loss was the first in the last eight games the Penguins have played at Municipal Auditorium against the Kangaroos.
Following the Dec. 30 meeting with Western Illinois, the Penguins will open Horizon League play at home on Jan. 2 against University of Wisconsin/Milwaukee in a 7 p.m. tip-off.