Sunday, November 24, 2002
YSU scored a 73-52 victory despite committing 26 turnovers.
By PETE MOLLICA
VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF
YOUNGSTOWN -- The Youngstown State men's basketball team posted its first victory of the season, and again it was against Slippery Rock University.
The Penguins jumped out to big lead and then coasted past the Rockets 73-52 before just under 2,000 fans at Beeghly Center.
YSU has recorded its first win of the season against The Rock five of the last six years.
"I'm happy and excited that we got the win, but we played much better [in the season opener] against Indiana State," Robic said.
Turnover trouble
Turnovers were a big problem again for the Penguins as they turned the ball over 26 times.
"We turned the ball over too much," Robic added. "We have to value the basketball when we have it."
On the plus side, Robic said that his team went into the game intending to establish a post game.
"We did that and Adam Baumann and Jamal Porter are going to be able to score for us this year," he said. "They set the tempo for this game early on tonight."
The Penguins had four players in double figures with senior Marlon Williamson and sophomore Doug Underwood getting 11 each and Porter and Baumann contributing 10 points each. Baumann, the 6-8 junior transfer, also had a game high nine rebounds.
The Penguins shot well from the field, finishing with a 59.2 percentage on 29 of 49 shots from the field. They shot 65.2 percent in the second half, hitting 15 of 23. They were just 4-for-11 from 3-point range.
But it still came down to turnovers.
"We aren't going to win many games with 26 turnovers," he said. "But a lot of them came with our kids trying too hard to make a play happen, and those you can accept some.
"It was hard to prepare for this game because they [Slippery Rock] had a new coach and only a couple of players returning," he said. "We thought they would use a zone defense and they did, but we really didn't know what to prepare for."
Controlling lead
The Penguins only trailed once in the contest and that came off the opening tip when The Rock scored on an alley-oop play to Dave Freeman.
The Penguins took the lead 3-2 on Underwood's free throw, and then built it to 14-5 and followed that with an 11-0 run to lead 25-6 with 10 minutes remaining in the half.
The Rock, which shot just 26 percent in the first half, went over 10 minutes without scoring a field goal, and didn't score from the field from the time Freeman scored the opening hoop, until 9:33 remained in the half.
YSU's biggest lead in the half was 31-9 with 7:18 remaining, but the Penguins scored just four points the rest of the way and took a 35-19 lead at halftime.
Slippery Rock cut the lead to 12 points 39-27 during the first three minutes of the second half, and was still at 12 points down after five minutes 44-32.
The Penguins went on a 7-0 run behind a 3-point shot by Underwood and buckets by Khari McQueen and Baumann, to pull ahead 60-36, and the Rock never seriously threatened again.
Coming up
The Penguins return to action at home on Saturday when they take on Toledo in a 7 p.m. contest.
When asked about his team stepping up to play a MAC opponent, Robic was quick to answer.
"I don't know about stepping up," he said. "We play in one of the top three mid-major conferences and so do they. I'll be more interested to see how they react to coming here and playing us."