YSU men continue to roll in February

By Pete Mollica

The Penguins beat St. Peter’s 68-64 for their fifth win in six games this month.

YOUNGSTOWN — Youngstown State men’s basketball coach Jerry Slocum is hoping his Penguins can finish out the month of February the way they started it.

Saturday afternoon, the Penguins (11-16) posted their fifth victory in six games this month with a 68-64 win over St. Peter’s (N.J.) College before 2,135 fans at Beeghly Center as part of the ESPN BracketBuster series.

“It wasn’t pretty, but it was a win,” said Slocum. “Usually when you shoot 37 percent and win it isn’t pretty, but I thought that we played tremendous defense in the second half.

“You have to play you’re best basketball in February and we seem to be doing just that,” he said. “We had a lot of good looks today, the shots were there we just didn’t make very many.”

Sophomore Vytas Sulskis led the Penguins with an 18-point performance, while junior DeAndre Mays and sophomore Tom Parks each added 13 points. Junior Sirlester Martin had a game-high 12 rebounds, while senior Jack Liles added eight points and eight rebounds.

Liles and Mikko Niemi, the two seniors on the team, were honored before the game on Senior Day as they played their final regular schedule game of their careers at Beeghly Center.

The Penguins have played three of those six games in February at home. The only loss came last Wednesday night at Cleveland State 58-54 in a game the Penguins started out trailing 22-8 in the first half.

The Penguins could host a first-round Horizon Tournament game on March 3, but in order for them to do that they must remain in sixth place in the standings. To do that the Penguins need either a victory in one of its remaining two road games which are at Butler on Thursday and at Valparaiso on Saturday or they need for Loyola to lose its final game of the season at home against UIC next Friday.

“It’s the last week of the year, we’re sitting in sixth place in the standings and we’re playing some of our best basketball,” said Slocum. “You can’t ask for much more than that.

The Penguins didn’t have an easy time with the Peacocks on Saturday, but their shooting had a lot to do with it.

YSU finished 22-of-58 for 37.9 and were 9-of-27 in the second half. Once again the Penguins didn’t help themselves at the foul line, making just 18-of-26, although they did outrebound St. Peter’s 41-29.

The two teams battled throughout the entire game. YSU’s biggest lead was eight points and the Peacocks’ was seven points.

The Penguins took the lead with 6:50 left in the first half on a 3-point shot by Mays and a 21-20 lead. They still led at halftime 32-30.

Through the first three minutes of the second half the score was tied three times and the lead changed hands three times before the Penguins went on a 12-4 run and took a 47-42 lead. That lead grew to eight points, 56-48, with 6:34 remaining in the game.

That was about the time that senior Zack Rebillot came out and did his usual hustling all of the court routine, getting rebounds and loose balls all over the floor.

“Zack just goes out there and does all those little tangible things for us,” Slocum said. “If you’re going to have any success, you have to have a Zack Rebillot on the team.”

The Penguins pulled a 63-57 lead with 1:42 remaining and could have just walked away from the Peacocks with any kind of foul shooting down the stretch.

The Penguins shot 10 free throws in the final 45 seconds and made just four, but even with a long 3-point shot by Nick Leon with five seconds remaining, the Peacocks couldn’t get any closer.

The Peococks (9-18) put three players in double figures led by Wesley Jenkins with 19 points while Leon finished with 18 and Ryan Bacon added 15.

St. Peter’s shot 42 percent for the game, although they did hit 47.8 percent in the first half and were 7-of-17 from 3-point range. The Peacocks also missed eight free throws.

The Penguins are slated to play at Butler Thursday at 7 p.m., while Saturday’s game at Valparaiso will have an 8:05 tip off.

mollica@vindy.com