Penguins wind up seasons

This week begins the final home stretch of the Horizon League basketball regular season and both the YSU men's and women's teams find themselves at the bottom end of the conference standings.
The men have two conference games remaining, at Butler on Wednesday night and at home in the season finale on Saturday against Loyola.
The women have one game remaining: Thursday night at home against Loyola.
If the women lose, they will get another home game -- the Horizon League play-in game on Feb. 28 against Cleveland State, a team they have defeated twice already this year.
If they beat Loyola, they will move up to seventh place in the standings and face a quarterfinal playoff game at No. 2 seed UW-Green Bay.
Knowing head coach Tisha Hill and the Penguins, there is little doubt that the Penguins will be going all out to win on Thursday night with the hopes of improving to the seventh seed position.
But it wouldn't be all that bad if they lost since it would give the Penguins another home game and a probable win over the Vikings. That win would put them up against top-seeded UW-Milwaukee in the quarterfinal round in Milwaukee.
There isn't a whole lot of difference between Milwaukee and Green Bay. The Penguins have lost twice to both, including a pair of games this past weekend in Wisconsin.
YSU has had successin Wisconsin recently
The Penguins have won in both places in recent years, including a big upset win a year ago in Green Bay and twice beating Milwaukee in the same season.
In order for the Penguins to get past anybody, they first need to cut down on their turnovers. They have 70 in the last three games, including 24 against Cleveland State in a win a week ago.
The Penguins are also in line to host the Horizon League semifinals at Beeghly Center, but to do so they must win a quarterfinal game, which would mean a win over either Green Bay or Milwaukee.
While the prospects for hosting the semifinal round don't look good, never count out the Penguins.
Men's team reelsat Horizon's bottom
The men's team is in last place and has been reeling for more than two weeks, losing six straight following Saturday's 75-68 defeat to Canisius in the ESPN Bracket Buster event in Buffalo, N.Y.
For some reason, the Penguins have been running out of gas late in the game. A lot of that has to do with the lack of bench support. Also, starters such as senior Derrick Harris, junior Quin Humphrey and junior Keston Roberts are playing 39 and 40 minutes a game.
Opposing teams have gone to zone defenses against the Penguins because they know YSU has no real inside scoring threat. They are making the Penguins shoot from the outside hoping they are not hitting the shots, which for the most part they haven't been recently.
YSU, which jumped out to a 13-0 lead on Canisius Saturday hit five of its first six shots -- 3 of 3 from behind the arc -- but that was the extent of its streak.
The Penguins finished 9 of 29 from 3-point range, while the Golden Griffins shot 76.9 percent in the second half.
Humphrey and Roberts are scorers, but are not pure shooters. They both need to create their shots, something that is tough to do against zone defenses.
Both of them, along with Harris, are getting good looks at the basket, but their shots are not falling consistently enough for them to pull out the win.
That and the fact that those three are in the game way too much and are dead tired by the stretch run has left the Penguins with a 7-18 record, 4-10 in the conference and looking at another 20-loss season.
In four previous seasons, the Penguins have never won more than four games in the Horizon. They have a shot to get at least one more this year, which would be a great accomplishment for first-year head coach Jerry Slocum and the team.
Pete Mollica is a sportswriter for The Vindicator. Write him at mollica@vindy.com.