Penguins hoping to snap streak to Colonials

The YSU men’s basketball team has lost four straight to Robert Morris.

By PETE MOLLICA

VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF

YOUNGSTOWN — The Youngstown State men’s basketball team will wrap up the 2009 portion of its schedule tonight when the Penguins play host to Robert Morris University in a 7:05 tip-off at Beeghly Center.

Tonight’s contest is the second of a five-game homestand for the Penguins, which began last week with an 82-69 victory over High Point, N.C.

The Penguins (5-6) will try to even their season record against the Colonials (4-7) and also end a four-game losing streak against Robert Morris. The Colonials own a 6-4 advantage in the series, which began in the 1989-90 season.

“We’ve been off for seven days now and we just need to get our legs back under us against a good Robert Morris team,” Slocum said. “It’s definitely a positive to be at home now, especially after playing six of our first 10 games on the road this year.

“We’re excited about having a bunch of home games ahead of us now and you have to take care of the home games especially when we get back into conference play on Saturday.”

The Penguins have played three Horizon League games this month, all on the road and all losses, but Slocum feels getting three road games out of the way early is a good thing.

“Right now we just want to get back to where we were before this last break,” he said. “Thus far this season we’ve learned from every game and we’ve overcome some adversity which has made us a better basketball team.”

He said the team has improved its shooting, especially from the foul line.

“That came with all those road games early in the year, where normally your progression isn’t as good,” he said. “We are defending very well right now and we need to keep getting better at it.”

The Penguins currently have three players averaging in double figures led by senior DeAndre Mays with a 12.2 point per game average, while senior Sirlester Margin is scoring at an 11.5 clip and leads the team in rebounding with a 5.4 average. Junior Vytas Sulskis is averaging 10.9 points and senior Kelvin Bright is hitting at a 9.0 per game average.

As a team the Penguins are shooting at a 43.4 percent clip and are just short of 70 percent from the foul line. They’ve also out-rebounded the opposition 34.1 to 32.4 over the first 11 games.

“Robert Morris is a good team and this year they got some good young players to mix in with the veterans returning,” Slocum said. “This will be a game where we need to play all 40 minutes to win.”

Redshirt freshman Eddie D’Haiti will round out the starting lineup for the Penguins, although Slocum said senior Dallas Blocker, who has missed the last five games with a knee injury, could be ready to see some action.

“Dallas is day-to-day right now,” Slocum said.

The Penguins have been getting some excellent help off the bench led by senior Zack Rebillot, junior Vance Cooksey, sophomore Ashen Ward and junior Dan Boulder.

Rebillot has equaled his career highs in both points (10) and rebounds the last two games and has been a real spark off the bench. He also just completed the fall semester with a 4.0 grade point average.

Rebillot said there is still room for improvement for the Penguins.

“Our best basketball is still to come,” he said. “Right now we need to get back into the rhythm. Our defense always has room for improvement and we need to execute better on offense.”

Following tonight’s game the Penguins will get back into Horizon League play on Saturday when they play host to Cleveland State at 7:05 p.m.

The game will be part of a doubleheader with the YSU women taking on Milwaukee in a 4:35 tip off at Beeghly Center.

mollica@vindy.com