Cleveland St. turns up ‘D,’ shuts off YSU

January 16, 2011 at 12:09a.m.

YOUNGSTOWN

Damian Eargle did his part. The YSU defense did its part.

And the Penguin offense fell apart.

Two out of three ain’t good.

The Youngstown State men’s basketball team clanked away a game it had to have Saturday night against Cleveland State, falling 61-51 in a Horizon League matchup at Beeghly Center.

“This hurts bad,” said Eargle.

In the first half, it also looked bad.

After YSU raced out to a 7-0 lead in the first 99 seconds, the Vikings upped their defensive pressure and a Big Ten game broke out. YSU made just one field goal and one free throw over the next 15 minutes, yet, somehow, trailed by just one when Kendrick Perry broke the drought with 3:15 left.

“In the first half, I didn’t think we got very good point guard play,” said YSU coach Jerry Slocum. “[Their press] was a major factor and that’s their base defense.

“They obviously took us out of our offense.”

Cleveland State jumped out to a 12-point lead early in the second half but the Penguins fought back thanks to a slump-busting stretch from Vytas Sulskis. Over a three-minute span, the struggling senior scored six points and assisted on an Eargle jumper to help YSU cut its deficit to 32-29 with 14:15 left.

But CSU responded with a 14-0 run and led by at least eight points the rest of the way.

“We needed this win,” said Vikings coach Gary Waters, whose team had lost two straight. “I didn’t think it was a very pretty game for us, but it was one of those road games that you just have to get out of the way.”

Senior guard Norris Cole, one of the favorites for league player of the year, shot just 5-of-18 from the field but made 9 of 10 from the free throw line for the Vikings (16-3, 5-2).

Trevon Harmon added 16 points and seven rebounds, while Jeremy Montgomery had 12 points and five rebounds.

The Vikings got just two points from their bench — YSU had eight — and shot just 33 percent from the field.

But CSU made 17 of 18 free throws in the second half, compared to just 10 of 17 for YSU.

“They made foul shots and we didn’t,” said Slocum, whose team was 11 of 21 from the line for the game. “It’s a basic, fundamental part of the game and it was not executed by us.”

Eargle had his best game in a YSU uniform, scoring 20 points on 9 of 16 shooting with eight rebounds and three blocks for the Penguins (7-10, 1-6), who have lost five straight league games.

Eargle didn’t get much help. Starting guards Blake Allen (who had been on a tear recently) and Ashen Ward combined to score just two points. Sulskis finished with nine but was invisible for long stretches, continuing a theme from the last six games.

Only junior guard Devonte Maymon (12 points) made an impact offensively.

“Damian played very well for the most part,” Slocum said. “And I thought Devonte made some big shots, which helped us.”

Cleveland State now leads the series 38-36 and has won seven of the last eight.

YSU drew an announced crowd of 4,302 — almost 2,000 more than its previous best this year.

The actual crowd wasn’t quite that big — 2,500 seems about right — but considering the Penguins were 1-5 in conference games and were going head-to-head with a Steelers playoff game, it was a good turnout.

But the Penguins couldn’t pull out the win and may need to win home games against Wright State and Detroit next week to avoid the Horizon League basement for the second straight year.

“We have [two more] home games and we have to come to play,” Eargle said.