SPOTLIGHT FIZZLE

By Jon Moffett

Poor shooting costs YSU in ESPNU showdown

The Penguins were down by four in the second half, but couldn’t capitalize.

YOUNGSTOWN — Head coach Jerry Slocum said it wasn’t the bright lights and pressure that came with a nationally televised game at home that caused the Youngstown State University men’s basketball team to falter.

Rather, it was the Penguins themselves.

And looking at the statistics from Friday’s 69-59 loss to the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Slocum was visibly upset.

The Penguins (7-11 and 2-7 in the Horizon League) attempted 27 3-point goals, making only seven. Overall, YSU shot 23-66 from the field.

“We don’t possess the ability to take 27 threes in a game and be successful,” Slocum said. “You take 20 more shots than they took; they had more turnovers than we had. We just did not shoot the ball well.”

Part of Milwaukee’s gameplan was to collapse the middle of the paint and put pressure on the Penguin shooters.

The Panthers (12-8, 4-4) were able to do just that, which forced the Penguins to settle for jump shots instead of driving to the basket.

“It was out of respect for how they’ve been playing,” said Milwaukee coach Rob Jeter. With Sirlester [Martin] on the back end and some of those guys cleaning up the rebounds and tip-dunking and tip-slamming, we wanted to take some of those things away and make them play more from the perimeter. And for tonight it worked.”

Slocum said the gameplan worked and stymied his physical team.

“We’ve a drive team. You get your gaps and take it to the rim,” Slocum said. “We just settled tonight for taking what I thought were poorly-timed shots in big moments, especially when the game was in the balance. It’s disappointing.”

Slocum had said previously that he wanted to take away seniors Ricky Franklin and James Eayrs from Milwaukee’s offense. That plan did not come to fruition, as Franklin was able to lead the game with 21 points.

Eayrs was limited to eight points tied for the team-high with seven rebounds.

The Penguins got an announced home crowd of more then 6,000 energized with some early showmanship.

Seniors DeAndre Mays and Kelvin Bright got the party started with an alley-oop layup on the game’s first scoring play. Mays made a beautiful pass to the soaring Bright, who laid it in and got the crowd into the game.

Later in the first half, Mays again found Bright, who this time slammed the ball through the hoop to tie the game at 13.

But Mays was limited to assisting duties in the first half. Mays averaged more than 13 points entering Friday’s game, but was held without a score in the first half. He finished with 10 points.

That result was exactly what Milwaukee had in mind.

“We wanted him to be a passer and not a shooter,” Jeter said, and added that the Panthers played more zone defense to take away Mays’ shots.

Mays’ 10 points were third on the team behind Martin, a senior, and junior Vytas Sulskis, who each had 11 points.

The Lithuanian Sulskis finished the game one rebound shy of achieving a double-double.

YSU’s men’s next game is against Green Bay on Sunday at 2:05 p.m. at Beeghly Center.

jmoffett@vindy.com