YSU men get big road win at Loyola

The women’s team wasn’t as fortunate as it suffered a 79-42 defeat at Green Bay.

STAFF/WIRE REPORT

CHICAGO — Youngstown State men’s basketball team played defense Thursday just the way head coach Jerry Slocum taught them and the result was a big road victory in the Horizon League.

YSU (7-15, 4-8) overcame a six-point halftime deficit and outscored Loyola 36-19 in the second half to post a 60-49 victory at the Gentile Center.

The victory ended a long road losing streak in the month of February for the Penguins, who had lost 24 straight road games in the month dating to the 2001 season.

“We played defense as [well] as we could play tonight,” Slocum said. “We had been at this point many times this season and rarely pulled it out, but they came through tonight.”

Slocum praised the play of reserves Zack Rebillot and Vytas Sulskis.

“Zack just did a tremendous job tonight when we needed it, while at halftime Vytas came to me and said I want Cerasoli [Justin] in the second half. He had scored 10 points in the first half and didn’t score again the rest of the game.”

The Penguins led only once in the first half off the opening basket and trailed 30-26 at halftime.

They fought back to take the lead 31-30 and the lead changed hands five times before the Penguins went on a 17-2 run and jumped to a 53-38 lead and were never threatened again.

Junior Kelvin Bright led the Penguins with 16 points while Sulskis added 10.

The Penguins shot 45.8 percent from the field and were 12-of-19 from the free-throw line. They outrebounded the Ramblers (12-12, 4-8) 43-42.

Loyola, which had won 10 straight games when leading at halftime, shot just 25 percent from the field (17-68) and were just 3-of-25 from 3-point range.

The Penguins will play again in Chicago on Saturday with a game at Illinois-Chicago, which dropped a 66-63 contest to Cleveland State on Thursday. Tip-off is at 8 p.m.

YSU women routed

GREEN BAY, Wis. — Wisconsin-Green Bay shot a scorching 71 percent in the first half and closed out the period on a 23-4 run en route to a 79-42 victory over the Youngstown State women at the Kress Events Center.

The Phoenix remain undefeated at 10-0 in Horizon League play and improved to 18-3 overall. The Penguins, who dropped their 11th straight game fell to 2-19, 0-10 in the Horizon League.

Green Bay put five players in double figures without anyone playing more than 25 minutes.

Kati Harty was 6-for-6 from the field and scored all of her team-high 14 points in the first half for UWGB.

Green Bay had a school-record 27 steals, which it turned into a 44-6 edge in points off turnovers.

Tiara Scott scored a team-high nine points for the Penguins.

YSU was 18-for-20 from the line for 90 percent and held a 40-28 edge in rebounding. The Penguins hit of their first 19 from the stripe, which would have been a school record for best free-throw percentage in a game, but the last attempt at 1:22 was off the mark.

The Penguins, who had 32 turnovers in the game, continue their Wisconsin road trip on Saturday at Milwaukee. Tipoff at the Klotsche Center is set for 3 p.m. YSU fell 72-60 to Milwaukee on Jan. 8 in Youngstown.