YSU teams go 4-for-4

What a week for the Penguins.

Four game, four YSU victories. That’s something that hasn’t happened in quite a while at Beeghly Center.

Both the YSU men and women are playing some of their best basketball right now and fans get a chance to see some more tonight when the men play host to UW-Milwaukee at Beeghly Center.

Game time for tonight’s contest was moved up to 5:35 p.m. to accommodate fans who want to watch Ohio State in the BCS national championship game.

Both YSU teams have had similar problems and have conquered them just about the same way.

Both were shooting very poorly and not playing much defense as they went on losing streaks last month. But both teams have corrected their problems, especially defensively, where they’ve been playing well even when the ball isn’t going through the hoop.

YSU men made defensive
change for the better

Jerry Slocum’s men’s team really made a change for the better defensively. The Penguins are aggressive and it just seems when they are playing well defensively they start shooting the ball better.

The Penguins have some good shooters, led by seniors Byron Davis and John Barber, along with freshman Vytas Sulskis, and when they get junior Jack Liles going the combination is almost unbeatable.

Barber has been the real key to the Penguins’ success in the last two Horizon League wins. The 6-foot-7 forward is probably the best all-around athlete on the team and really never played up to his potential before this season.

A player with great leaping ability, Barber is also a tremendous shooter from almost anywhere on the court and he can rebound with anybody in the league as he showed against a much taller UIC team Thursday when he pulled down a career-high 15 rebounds while scoring 24 points.

The Penguins have been getting some good bench support from junior guard Mikko Niemi and senior Dwight Holmes, especially on defense, while junior Mel Johnson has played some key minutes.

Last week the Penguins lost freshman forward Dan Boulder, a Louisville native. The 6-7 reserve suffered a broken hand against Slippery Rock, had surgery and will miss the rest of the season.

Tisha Hill’s women’s team has been doing all the right things the last three games, something that was expected of this veteran team.

Saturday Hill went the entire game with just seven players for the first time this season.

“We kind of like this group we have on the floor,” she said. “We’ve got six or seven that have been playing well together. It’s not to say that we won’t change, but every one of the 14 players knows her role on this team.”

Junior Tiara Scott has made a big impact and ever since her outstanding performance at Akron she has been a starter and fits in nicely with seniors Jessica Schloemp, Heather Karner and Lauren Branson and junior Kelsey Gurgainus. Juniors Ashley Pendleton and Velissa Vaughn are the two players off the bench that gives the team added support.

Humphrey back in U.S.
playing basketball

Former Penguin standout Quin Humphrey, the eighth leading scorer in YSU history, is back in the United States playing basketball.

Humphrey who went to Turkey to play in the European League didn’t like things overseas and returned home.

He was selected in the National Basketball Developmental League’s draft, the second selection by the Rio Grand Valley Vipers, and is now playing there.

Humphrey has been playing very well for the Vipers, scoring 17 points in each of his last three games. He’s averaging 20 minutes of playing time per game.

The Vipers are affiliated with the Cleveland Cavaliers. The NBA Developmental League is based in the south and southwest and the closest team to Youngstown is Fort Wayne, Ind.

Another former YSU player, Mike Adams, was drafted by Albuquerque, but didn’t survive the cut.

XPete Mollica covers YSU athletics for The Vindicator. Write to him at mollica@vindy.com.