Harding’s Eargle to play for Penguins

By Pete Mollica

Former McDonald standout Andy Timko will also join the team.

By PETE MOLLICA

VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF

YOUNGSTOWN — Youngstown State men’s basketball coach Jerry Slocum officially signed his second player from Warren Harding this week when 6-foot-7 forward Damian Eargle accepted a scholarship to play for the Penguins.

Unfortunately Eargle, who transferred to YSU from University of North Carolina Greensboro, and last season’s top recruit, freshman Sheldon Brogdon probably won’t play this season for the Penguins.

Eargle must sit out the 2009-10 campaign according to the NCAA transfer rules, but will have three years of eligibility remaining, while Brogdon, who suffered a severe knee injury in his senior season at Harding, is still rehabbing his injury and most likely will be redshirted this coming year.

Slocum is excited to have Eargle in the program.

“We’re very excited about Damian coming back home to play for Youngstown State,” Slocum said. “We started recruiting him when he was a sophomore at Harding and we just feel so good that he’s coming back home to play. It’s a very good fit for him here.

“He’ll sit out this season and will have the opportunity to work in the weight room and get stronger, which is what he needs right now,” Slocum added.

“He’s a player that can play on the perimeter and inside and is one of the finest defensive players I’ve seen at the high school level in the last 20 years,” Slocum added. “We have two pretty good seniors at the inside position who will be graduating this year and he should fit right in where we need the most.”

In his lone season at UNCG, Eargle appeared in 29 games with 20 starts and averaged 9.2 points and 5.6 rebounds per game. He also led the Southern Conference with 57 blocked shots, averaged 11.6 points per game in conference play and was named to the all-freshman team. His season-high 25 points in a win over Appalachian State back in January was the most scored by a UNCG freshman in 18 years.

At Harding, Eargle twice was named all-state honorable mention and averaged 13.6 points as a senior and 14.3 points his junior year. In both seasons he averaged nine rebounds per game and also set the Raiders’ career blocked shots and rebounding records.

“He played in a pretty good basketball conference,” added Slocum. “I’m a little prejudiced toward the Horizon League, but the Southern Conference is a good league. He had four blocked shots in a game against Davidson last year.”

Slocum also announced that former McDonald High standout Andy Timko will be a walk-on the team this year.

Timko, a 6-3 guard who served as the team’s manager last season, played his freshman season at Westminster College where he started 18 of 26 games.

A three-year letterwinner at McDonald, Timko averaged 16 points, six assists and three steals per game as a junior and senior and was a three-time first-team all-league selection.

“Andy is a hard working young man and he’s gone through our entire summer program and we are glad that he’s decided to continue his basketball career at Youngstown State,” Slocum said. “The fact that he’s a local boy even makes it that much better.

Timko’s uncle Bruce Timko was a basketball standout at YSU from 1982-86.

mollica@vindy.com