Squads needing victories

By Pete Mollica

The men play Wright State and the women host UIC Thursday at Beeghly Center.

YOUNGSTOWN — The Youngstown men’s and women’s basketball teams are about at the halfway point in their Horizon League schedules.

And looking at the team’s records (6-13, 3-6 men) and (2-16, 0-7 women), the one thing that immediately stands out is that Penguins need to start winning and quickly.

Thursday, both teams are in action in a doubleheader at Beeghly Center.

The women will open the night against Illinois-Chicago in a 5:15 p.m. tip off while the men will follow against Wright State at 7:35 p.m.

The men are sitting in seventh place and YSU head coach Jerry Slocum knows that in order for his team to get a first round home post-season tournament game the Penguins need to be in sixth place or higher.

“There is still a lot of basketball to be played,” Slocum said.

The third, fourth, fifth and sixth place teams get first-round home games while the top two teams get byes to the semifinals. Butler is running away with the top spot, but the others are still within reach.”

Slocum was somewhat disappointed in the Penguins’ 67-53 loss at home to Akron on Monday, especially after YSU had played an outstanding game three nights earlier against Cleveland State in a 64-60 win on national television.

“Monday night, we played a game against a very good team in which we didn’t perform very well,” Slocum said.

“Against Cleveland State, we performed well down the stretch, but we didn’t at all against Akron.”

Slocum praised his teams effort against Cleveland State and the effort of the entire YSU athletic department for their efforts.

“Nobody in our conference could have put on a better show for ESPNU than we did that night,” he said

The Penguins take on Wright State on Thursday, a team that Slocum feels they should have beaten in their first meeting in Dayton, a game they lost 60-59.

“You have to adjust the second time around,” he said.

There will be no surprises, both teams have films on the other and every game in the league is carried over the Internet.

Slocum lauded the play of junior DeAndre Mays, who he says has been the Penguins most consistent player of late.

“We’ve had a lot of lineup changes this season, which speaks well of the depth we have on this team.

The women’s team has been in a terrible slump, but first-year head coach Cindy Martin says that with a young inexperienced team like she has all they can do is continue to get better and hopes the wins start to come.

“I don’t feel that we are struggling, we’ve had injury problems and we are playing a lot of young players, we’re getting better and I feel that once we get that next win it will get us on a roll heading to the tournament,” Martin said.

The Penguins are on an eight-game losing streak and have lost 13 of their last 14 games and all seven of their conference games. None have been remotely close.

mollica@vindy.com