YSU faces crucial stretch

The Youngstown State men's basketball team has two games remaining and both are crucial to the Penguins' postseason plans.
YSU, which knocked off Eastern Kentucky 66-61 Saturday in a non-conference game at Beeghly Center, plays host to Horizon League-leader Wright State Thursday night and closes out the season Saturday at Cleveland State.
YSU (12-15, 6-8) desperately needs at least one victory to play host to a first-round league tournament game.
Playing the Raiders (13-2 in the Horizon League) at home should be a big boost for the Penguins, who are playing well at Beeghly Center lately.
In their last three home games the Penguins have shot better than 50 percent from the field in beating UIC, Detroit and Eastern Kentucky.
They'll need a performance like that when they face the Raiders, who beat the Penguins 62-49 Jan. 24 in Dayton.
"We're playing well right now and this is the time of the year that you want to be playing well," said YSU coach Jerry Slocum.
Two more victories would give the Penguins 14, twice the number they had in 2005-06, Slocum's first season at YSU.
Final home gamefor three seniors
Thursday night will mark the final regular season home game for YSU's three seniors, Quin Humphrey, Keston Roberts and Dwight Holmes.
Humphrey and Roberts are the Penguins' leading scorers and also rank high in the Horizon League.
The Penguins will be hard-pressed to replace the more than 30 points a game that Humphrey and Roberts average.
Sophomore Jack Liles has been a surprise this season and continues to get better each game. Saturday night he had a career-high18 points and eight rebounds that helped the Penguins to their victory.
"The work that Jack Liles has put in at practice is really starting to show up in the games," said Slocum.
"He's only going to get better.
But after Liles and junior point guard Byron Davis, only junior John Barber has shown signs of life off the bench.
It's true that most of the Penguins bench had seen little game action with the first six dominating most of the playing time.
Sophomore guard Mikko Niemi, junior forward Chris Booth and junior guard George Cotal are the only subs with any real playing time.
Looking to buildfor next season
The Penguins reportedly are trying to sign a high-scoring junior college guard who averages more than 20 points a game and they already have a verbal commitment from Kennedy Catholic High's Blair Rosenblad, considered to be one of the top players in Western Pennsylvania who has just returned from a year-long knee injury.
While the future appears cloudy for the men's team, just the opposite is true for the YSU women's team.
After losing 76-70 contest to Wisconsin-Milwaukee Saturday, the Penguins are 7-17 overall and 5-8 in the Horizon League.
YSU has three games remaining, all on the road, where the Penguins are just 2-8 this season.
The Penguins are playing much better lately.
They've been in the games late and with no seniors on the roster that's a bright spot for the future.
They still need to improve on their shooting -- they've missed too many easy shots -- and they must cut down on turnovers, but those things should be fixable for coach Tisha Hill before next season.
Pete Mollica covers YSU athletics for The Vindicator. Write to him at mollica@vindy.com and check out his blogs at Vindy.com.