YSU MEN'S BASKETBALL Penguins subdue St. Francis for first victory of the season

Junior Khari McQueen scored a career-high 12 points in the 77-61 win over the Red Flash.
By JOE SCALZO
VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF
YOUNGSTOWN -- Youngstown State junior Khari McQueen wasn't looking for a career scoring record on Saturday.
He just wanted to stay in the game.
"I've been in foul trouble for our first two games, so I was just trying to play hard and help the team," McQueen said.
He did both.
McQueen scored a career-high 12 points -- just the second double-digit performance of his career -- and the Penguins (1-2) forced 30 St. Francis (Pa.) turnovers to pull away for a 77-61 victory in the home opener at Beeghly Center.
"I've been saying all week that the toughest win is the first one," Penguins coach John Robic said. "It beats losing."
Senior Adam Baumann scored a game-high 16 points on 5 of 15 shooting and grabbed six rebounds for the Penguins, who started a brutal stretch that has them playing four games in seven days.
"We executed better and we were a lot more active defensively," McQueen, who scored just 2 points in the first two games combined, said. "It was a good way to start off [the stretch]."
Different story
St. Francis (0-3) entered Saturday's game with a 19-11 edge in the all-time series against YSU, including a 70-56 win at home last season.
The Red Flash were expected to be even better this season, but they haven't got much help from their schedule. They began the season with losses to Penn State and Pittsburgh.
Saturday's game was almost a must-win, and St. Francis didn't.
"I think that's a better St. Francis team than they played today and [I think] they're better than last year," Robic said.
YSU's main challenge was shutting down sophomore guard Darshan Luckey, who was the Northeast Conference freshman of the year last season. Luckey came in averaging 19 points per game and scored 29 in last year's win over the Penguins.
On Saturday, he had 3.
"I'm sure that's a career-low," Robic said.
Pulling away
The Red Flash shot just 8 of 24 from the floor (33.3 percent) in the first half as YSU took a 35-23 lead.
St. Francis trailed just 26-20 with 2:29 left in the first half, but the Penguins went on a 9-0 run to take a 35-20 lead.
Red Flash guard Joey Goodson ended the run with a 3-pointer just before the buzzer.
"The only thing that upset me in the first half was that we gave up a 3 to end it," Robic said. "But that's not necessarily a bad thing. I was able to get on them in the locker room. I didn't want them to feel good about themselves."
Robic shouldn't have worried.
YSU kept a double-digit lead the entire second half -- the Penguins led by as many as 25 -- before St. Francis cut it closer in the final minutes.
"The only thing that sticks out to me is that we have to become a better rebounding team," Robic, whose team was out-rebounded 42-32, said. "But I liked our tempo."
And while the first win was nice, Robic knows the Penguins need to get better.
"Oh yeah, we're not there yet," he said. "I don't even think we're very close yet."
scalzo@vindy.com