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New-look Penguins hang on against Samford
By joe scalzo
YOUNGSTOWN
Wearing Sheldon Brogdon’s pullover and a pair of sandals, YSU senior Vytas Sulskis bounded into Friday’s postgame press conference singing, “We’re undefeated! We’re undefeated! Whoop-whoop!”
Well, barely.
Thanks to 20 points off the bench from newcomer DuShawn Brooks and a last-second miss by Samford, the Penguins won their opener 64-61 at Beeghly Center.
The finish was an encouraging sign for YSU, which struggled to an 8-22 record last year due in part to its inability to finish games.
“Last year, it seemed like we couldn’t get one,” said Sulskis, who finished with 13 points and 10 rebounds for his third career double-double. “We’d always lose on the buzzer-beater, something like that.
“It’s pretty important to start off the year strong like that and [know] we can play to the end and win the game against a good team.”
After an ice-cold first half that saw them miss 15 of their first 16 3-point attempts, the Penguins settled down in the second half. Brooks, a transfer from Butler County Community College, scored 16 of his points in the final 20 minutes and helped YSU take a 10-point lead with five minutes left.
“I think we were kind of jacked out of our heads a little bit,” YSU coach Jerry Slocum said of the first half. “I thought we did a pretty good job of kind of hanging in at the half.”
Samford (0-1) clawed back in the final minutes, cutting its deficit to one with 13 seconds left.
After Sulskis made two free throws to make it 63-60 with 10 seconds left, Slocum elected to foul Bulldogs guard Gregg Wooten, who split the free throws. Penguins guard Kendrick Perry then split a pair on the other end to make it 64-61 and Slocum again elected to foul. Wooten again missed the first, then intentionally missed the second.
Wooten somehow got the rebound and kicked it out to Josh Davis, whose 3-point attempt at the buzzer banged off the left side of the rim.
When asked what he was thinking at that point, Brooks laughed and said, “Oh, man, I was like, ‘Oh, God, we need to work on our free throw rebounds.’
“If he would have hit that, I would have went crazy. But he missed it so all is good.”
Junior guard Devonte Maymon, another junior college transfer, had 15 points for the Penguins, who return just three players from last year’s team. In fact, for a three-minute stretch late in the fourth, YSU had five new players on the floor.
Warren Harding High grads Damian Eargle (four points, seven rebounds, three blocks) and Sheldon Brogdon (three points) showed glimpses of their potential. But, then, you could say that about almost everyone.
“I think the attitude of the whole team [is different],” said Sulskis. “Even guys who didn’t play, they were cheering each other.
“We’ve just got to stay together as a family and tonight we pulled through.”