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YSU ready for Horizon
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TWO WITH AUTHORITY: De'andre Mays (1) of Youngstown State slams home a basket in the first half of Monday's game against Lock Haven at Beeghly Center. Mays scored 13 points and had six rebounds int eh Penguins' 81-60 win.
By Pete Mollica
The Penguins beat Lock Haven 80-61 in their final game of 2008.
YOUNGSTOWN — Youngstown State men’s basketball coach Jerry Slocum was sporting a new goatee and mustache Monday night and if his Penguins continue to play like they did Monday he might be wearing it for quite a while.
The Penguins (3-8) shot the ball well, committed very few turnovers and dominated the boards in an 81-60 victory over Division II Lock Haven at Beeghly Center.
“I’ll try anything,” said Slocum who is trying to get his Penguins ready for Horizon League play which resumes Thursday night at Detroit.
“I’m just glad to get 2008 over with. This year hasn’t been one that ranks very high on my list,” he added.
“Tonight we did some very good things offensively,” he added. “I’m still a little concerned with our defense, but it got much better in the second half tonight.
“I thought that our shot selection in the last three or four games has been tremendous and we did a great job on the boards, especially the offensive boards, but we’ve worked hard on that in practice,” he said.
The Penguins shot 45.2 percent from the field, including 48.6 percent in the first half, and made just 11 turnovers, with six of those coming in the final six minutes when the game had already been decided and Slocum was taking a good look at most of his reserves.
But the big difference was on the boards where the Penguins outrebounded the Eagles 50-26, including 21-5 on the offensive boards, and they scored 32 points off second chance shots.
YSU senior Jack Liles led the way with another double-double, scoring 18 points and getting 13 rebounds. The 6-foot-7 standout from Odenton, Md., had a double-double at halftime with 14 points and 10 rebounds.
The Penguins put three other players in double figures, including sophomore Vytas Sulskis with 16 points, junior Kelvin Bright with 15 and junior DeAndre Mays with 13.
The Penguins jumped out to an early 6-2 lead behind Liles who scored all six, and missed just two shots over the first five minutes, but found themselves trailing 12-10, mainly because Lock Haven had missed only three shots. Both teams shot over 60 percent from the field in the first five minutes.
The Penguins finally took the lead for good on a jump shot by Mays with 12:16 remaining, 15-14, then built a 21-16 margin before the Eagles came back to pull within two points, 25-23, on a 3-point shot by David Blackwell.
Sulskis hit back-to-back 3-point shots with just over six minutes remaining to stretch the YSU lead to 10 points, 37-27, and the Eagles never got closer the rest of the way. The Penguins led 43-31 at the intermission.
Early in the second half the Penguins went on a 10-0 run again sparked by Sulskis, who had back to back baskets, one a 3-pointer, to up the lead to 57-33.
Senior Billy Arre, who led all scorers with 25 points for the Eagles, scored 12 of his points in the final 10 minutes and the Eagles pulled to within 16 points, 76-60, with just under two minutes to play.
But the Penguins scored the final five points, four of them by Bright, to keep the Eagles from getting any closer.
The Penguins, who are already 0-2 in Horizon League play after dropping home contests to Valparaiso and Butler in early December, now will play its next two league games on the road.
They play at Detroit in a 1:05 p.m. contest Thursday and then go to Wright State on Saturday for a 7 p.m. contest. Their next home game is Jan. 8 against UIC.