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PENGUINS’ FINAL TUNEUP
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Vance Cooksey of YSU shoots past Dave Phillips of Geneva during Tuesday exhibition game.
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YSU's Tom Parks and Geneva's Richard Colick go for a loose ball.
By Pete Mollica
The Penguins put five players in double figures in the 98-52 victory.
YOUNGSTOWN — Youngstown State basketball coach Jerry Slocum said the Penguins still have a long way to go this season to become a good team. Don’t tell that to Geneva College.
The Penguins finished out their exhibition season Tuesday night by routing the outmanned Golden Tornadoes, 98-52, at Beeghly Center.
The Penguins will open regular season play Saturday night against Buffalo in a 7:05 contest at Beeghly.
“We have athleticism and depth,” said Slocum, “but we still have to learn to play together and become a team.
“We still don’t have a leader out there on the floor and this concerns me,” the fourth-year coach added. “We have so many new faces on this team and they are still learning how to play together as a group.”
And the Penguins don’t have a lot of time until their first big test.
“Buffalo is going to come in here Saturday night with their top eight players back from last year,” Slocum said. “Add to that the fact they played on a Canadian tour and have five or six games under their belts. They are going to come in here in mid-December form and we’re still struggling to find ourselves.”
The Penguins didn’t struggle Tuesday night against the Division III Golden Tornadoes.
YSU dominated every phase of the game, shooting 48.7 percent (37-of-76) from the field to just 31.6 percent (18-of-57) for Geneva. The Penguins held a 43-38 edge in rebounds, forced 32 turnovers while making just 11 and had 21 steals to Geneva’s four.
The Penguins never trailed from the opening tip and their biggest lead was the 46 points at the game’s end.
YSU put five players in double figures and 10 of the 12 active players on the roster scored in the contest.
Leading the way was junior college transfer Kelvin Bright with 24 points, while senior Jack Liles finished with a double-double, getting 14 points and 12 rebounds.
Sophomore Vytas Sulskis and junior transfer DeAndre Mays each added 12 points while sophomore Vance Cooksey contributed 10 points and five steals. Mays had seven assists.
“I’ve said before that this is without a doubt the best depth that I’ve ever had on a team since I’ve been here,” Slocum said. “We’ve got help inside if Liles gets into foul trouble and we’ve got some talented people outside. Now if we can just get everybody playing together for a full 40 minutes we’ll be OK.”
The Penguins pulled out to an 11-3 lead, but mainly thanks to the Golden Tornadoes’ 1-for-12 shooting in the opening five minutes. After Geneva closed the gap to 14-11 the Penguins went on a 19-6 run to take a 33-17 lead and the game was never close again.
“Tonight we did some things very well, but we also had spells where we didn’t,” Slocum added. “It’s going to take some time to get everybody on the same page and fortunately we got some early home games that should be to our advantage.”
The Penguins open the season with five of their first seven games at Beeghly Center, including a pair of Horizon League contests Dec. 4 and Dec. 6 against Valparaiso and Butler.