Penguins facing big contest tonight against Cleveland State Vikings

By Pete Mollica

YOUNGSTOWN — February has been pretty good to the Youngstown State men’s basketball team.

The Penguins have won four straight games and have improved their season record to 10-15 and 7-8 in the Horizon League.

But tonight the Penguins have a huge challenge when they travel to meet Cleveland State (19-8, 10-5) in a big conference battle at the Wolstein Center in Cleveland. Tipoff is set for 7 p.m.

The Penguins hold down sixth place in the conference standings, the final spot which would provide a first-round home game in the league’s postseason tournament.

YSU holds a two-game edge over the No. 7 teams Loyola and UIC, who are both 5-11 in league play. If the Penguins can win one of their three remaining games in the conference, they would lock up the sixth tournament seed. If they were to lose all three, and Loyola, which has two games remaining and both at home, would win both, they would be tied.

Loyola and the Penguins split during the regular season, but the Ramblers would then get the No. 6 seed by virtue of their upset over No. 1 seed Butler this past Sunday, 71-67.

“This has been a good month for us thus far,” YSU head coach Jerry Slocum said. “We’ve competed, not always perfectly, but we’ve worked so very hard to get where we are.

“This is a big game, and Cleveland State is a very good basketball team, especially in their own building,” Slocum said.

The Vikings have a six-game winning streak and have not lost since the Penguins defeated them 64-60 on Jan. 23 before over 6,000 fans at Beeghly Center. The Vikings are 12-2 at home this season.

“They are very good defensively, and they have been very successful in getting out to a comfortable lead,” Slocum said. “In their last six contests, they’ve dominated the opposition over the first 10 minutes of the game, so it will be crucial to us to be able to stay with them early and not let them get a big lead.”

The Penguins have been getting a lot of help from a lot of different players over this winning streak, which is also the longest winning streak since the 2000-01 season, when the Penguins opened the season with four straight wins.

Sophomore transfer Tom Parks moved into the starting lineup just before the streak started and has played a key role especially with this 3-point shooting. Freshman Ashen Ward, also a new starter, has played equally as well for the Penguins.

Junior guard DeAndre Mays has taken over the team lead in scoring, averaging more than 11 points a contest, while junior Sirlester Martin is the second-leading rebounder in the conference averaging more than seven per game.

Sophomore Vytas Sulskis, who scored the winning basket in the 70-68 win over Milwaukee on Saturday night, is another big outside scoring thread. Senior Zack Rebillot is another player who comes off the bench and gives the Penguins quality time on the floor.

“We’re playing basketball for a reason right now, and we’ve got our focus on doing the things that we’ve got to do,” Slocum said.

mollica@vindy.com