Better shooting, rebounds needed

The Youngstown State men’s basketball team lost to Pittsburgh on Saturday, 72-56, but anybody who saw the game knows the final score was no indication of how well the Penguins played against the Panthers on their home court.

Over 10,000 fans, almost all of them from Pitt, sat on their hands and held their collective breath for almost three-quarters of the contest as the Penguins battled the Panthers basket for basket.

But, like it almost always seems to happen, YSU hit a lull in its play at about the 11-minute mark of the second half, allowing the Panthers to go on a 10-0 run and take control of the contest.

The score was tied, 42-42, with less than 12 minutes remaining and the Penguins still only trailed by seven points at the 8-minute mark, but they wore down a little at the end and just didn’t have enough left to catch Pittsburgh.

Playing a full 40 minutes has been a problem for the Penguins against the top echelon teams over the years. YSU always seems to play well for a while, but then go to sleep for a time when the opposition pulls ahead.

Pitt is a good but nowhere near as good as it has been the last several years. Coach Jamie Dixon is starting two juniors, a sophomore and two freshmen.

Pitt had only two seniors on the team and one of those, Jermaine Dixon, is hurt and may miss the rest of the season.

Even Jamie Dixon said after the game he feels this team is still a year away from becoming a great one.

The Penguins have depth and experience and when they put it together they can play with just about anybody on their schedule, but they have to put it together more often and hold it for a full 40 minutes.

Over the first 30 minutes on Saturday the Penguins played outstanding defense. If they hadn’t missed some easy shots early in the game and had a respectable free-throw shooting performance they probably would have led the Panthers for most of those 30 minutes.

The Penguins have to be one of the worst free throw shooting teams in the country. They were 9-of-17 against Pitt. Their defense also caused the Panthers to commit 17 turnovers, compared to just 13 for the Penguins, but getting beat 38-22 on the boards certainly didn’t help the cause.

The Penguins have some outstanding shooters on the team, both in the starting lineup and off the bench, but what they’ve been lacking this year has been any type of inside scoring punch.

Senior Sirlester Martin, who last year averaged in double figures and was one of the top rebounders in the Horizon League, hasn’t played anywhere near what he did a year ago and both he and senior Dallas Blocker, who missed some easy shots under the hoop Saturday, have to score and rebound better.

Saturday was the first game of five straight on the road for the Penguins and three of the four remaining games will be no easy pickings since they are all Horizon League games.

The Penguins play at Detroit (4-2) on Thursday and the Titans, who lost Saturday at DePaul 68-66, have three wins over Division I opponents. On Saturday the Penguins travel to Dayton to take on Wright State, where they haven’t been very successful over the years. The Raiders (3-2) lost Saturday at Northeastern 70-67 and all three of their wins have been over Div. I opponents.

The Penguins will make a stop at St. Francis, Pa., on Dec. 16 and the Red Flash (1-4) have been struggling this year, but are always tough to beat at home.

The final game of the road trip will be Dec. 19 at Green Bay (5-1) with all five wins against Div. I competition including a victory at Kent State, which defeated the Penguins 70-61 at Beeghly Center earlier this month.

The Penguins don’t return home until Dec. 22 when they play host to High Point, N.C. and play their final game of 2009 on Dec. 30 when they host Robert Morris.

The Penguins are definitely better this year and they’ll be getting a lot more wins once they learn how to play all 40 minutes of the contest.

XPete Mollica covers YSU athletics for The Vindicator. Write to him at mollica@vindy.com.