Penguins fall short again

By Pete Mollica

Another poor night at the foul line cost the YSU men in a 67-61 loss to Wright State.

YOUNGSTOWN — The Youngstown State men’s basketball team might be on a three-game winning streak if only they could make free throws.

Thursday night the Penguins hit on just 10-of-18 charity tosses and went on to lose, 67-61, in a Horizon League contest to Wright State before 1,844 fans at Beeghly Center.

Even the one game that the Penguins won of the last three, a 64-60 win over Cleveland State, they shot poorly at the foul line and the same was true on Monday in a 67-53 loss to Akron.

“We very likely could have won our last two games if we had made our free throws,” said YSU coach Jerry Slocum.

The Penguins had their opportunities Thursday even with the foul line misses.

YSU (6-14, 3-7 HL) trailed by as many as 13 points midway in the second half, but cut that down to four points with 3:20 remaining (60-56) and to three points (62-59) with 1:01 left, but just couldn’t overcome the Raiders at the end.

“With just under 12 minutes remaining at a time out we were down by 12 points and I told our kids that I feel good at where we are at right now and if you go out and play hard for these last 12 minutes we can win this game,” Slocum said.

But the Penguins came up a minute short in their rally.

“I thought we played well for about 22 or 23 minutes,” Slocum said. “We’ve been shaking up the lineup trying to find guys to step up and tonight we got good effort from Tom Parks.”

Parks, a sophomore transfer, had a career high 15 points and was 4-of-7 from the 3-point line. Junior Dallas Blocker added 12 points off the bench, but they were the only players in double figures.

The Penguins shot 33.3 percent from the field in the first half, but hit 50 percent in the second and outrebounded the Raiders 33-27, with junior Sirlester Martin leading the way with seven.

Wright State (13-8, 7-3) had three players in double figures led by Todd Brown with 20 points, including 5-of-9 from 3-point range.

It was the second win by the Raiders over YSU this season as they posted a 60-59 victory earlier this month in Dayton.

The Penguins fell behind quickly as Brown connected on two 3-pointers and Troy Tabler added another for a 12-6 lead, which the Raiders held until junior Kelvin Bright hit a bucket with 2:39 remaining in the half to put YSU ahead 23-22.

That lead didn’t last long as the Raiders scored the next six points, but sophomore Vance Cooksey closed the gap in the final seconds driving just past midcourt before unleashing a final 3-pointer that cut the lead to 28-26 at intermission.

The Penguins started cold to open the second half and the Raiders built a 48-35 lead with just over 11 minutes remaining, but the Penguins went on a 9-2 run, five by Blocker to pull to within six (50-44).

DeAndre Mays connected on a jumper with 3:40 remaining to pull YSU to within four points (60-56) and then he also added a rebound basket to get the lead to three (62-59), but the Raiders scored the next five points, three at the free throw line to put the contest out of reach despite a slam dunk by senior Jack Liles in the final seconds.

The Penguins will remain at home on Saturday night when they take on Detroit in a 7:05 contest at Beeghly Center.

mollica@vindy.com