YSU men impressive with 80-68 win against UIC

Freshman Vytas Sulskis led the Penguins with a
career-high 26 points.

By PETE MOLLICA

VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF

YOUNGSTOWN — Youngstown State men’s basketball coach Jerry Slocum has been preaching to his team that they need to play 40 minutes of basketball if they are going to be successful.

Slocum might not have gotten 40 minutes out his team Thursday night, but it was more than enough for the Penguins (5-7, 1-1 Horizon League) to record their first league victory with an 80-68 win over Illinois-Chicago before 1,867 fans at Beeghly Center.

“You’re never going to get 40 perfect minutes of basketball, but I’ll take what we got tonight anytime,” Slocum said. “Confidence is a crazy thing and the way we defended tonight was just tremendous.

“We shared the ball well and we got some good bench support,” Slocum said. “It’s a good feeling, but you know you are only as good as your last game.

The Penguins defeated a good UIC team. The Flames (8-6, 2-1) had won five of their last six games. They had a big height advantage over the Penguins who deadlocked the Flames 40-40 on the boards, behind a 15-rebound night by senior John Barber.

Barber also scored 24 points which was second to a career-high performance by freshman Vytas Sulskis, who scored 26 points with seven rebounds, two assists and a steal on the night.

“Our guards did a great job of getting me the ball when I was open,” Sulskis said. “Tonight we just did what the coach has been telling us to do all year long.”

“Vytas’ play was no accident,” Slocum said. “He’s a great shooter and he showed it tonight. I also thought we did a great job on the boards against a team that was much bigger than we were.”

Slocum also praised the effort of senior Dwight Holmes.

“I thought Dwight did an outstanding job defensively for us tonight,” he said. “In fact it was a great defensive effort for the team as a whole.”

It all started with a torrid first half by the Penguins, who shot 60.6 percent from the field in the first 20 minutes and was hitting at a 70 percent clip over the first eight minutes while pulling to a 23-16 advantage.

YSU took the lead for keeps with 15:03 remaining in the first half on a 3-point shot by junior Mikko Niemi.

Sulskis had 20 of his 26 points in the first half including 4-of-5 from 3-point range and helped the Penguins to take a 53-42 halftime lead.

UIC never got closer than eight points in the second half and that came with 10:11 remaining 61-53 before the Penguins made a run.

Junior Jack Liles, junior Mel Johnson and senior Byron Davis all connected for baskets in a 6-0 run the pulled YSU to its biggest lead of the game 67-53 with 9:06 left to play.

Neither team shot the ball well over the final nine minutes, but the Penguins made four of six free throws in the final 40 seconds to lock up the win.

The Penguins finished with 29-of-58 from the field (50 percent) and were just 15-of-26 from the charity stripe. YSU finished with 14 turnovers but forced the Flames into 17. YSU had 18 assists with Davis getting six and Niemi five and they also had 14 steals with Davis getting four of them.

The Penguins will be back in action on Saturday when they continue in Horizon League play entertaining Loyola of Chicago in a 1:05 tip off at Beeghly Center. The game will be the first of a doubleheader with the YSU women and Loyola squaring off in the second game at 3:30.

mollica@vindy.com