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YSU men falter late in Horizon League loss
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Youngstown State’s Vytas Sulskis (44) drives through Wright State defenders N’Gai Evans, left, and Armand Battle (12) during the first half of Thursday’s game at YSU’s Beeghly Center. The Penguins kept it close, but fell to the Raiders, 66-62.
YSU men falter late in Horizon League loss
By Joe Scalzo
YOUNGSTOWN
Turns out, two Wrights make a wrong.
In a near-replica of the women’s loss hours earlier, the Youngstown State men’s basketball team faltered down the stretch en route to a frustrating, and oh-so-familiar, 66-62 loss to Wright State in a Horizon League game Thursday at Beeghly Center.
The Penguins coughed up a 10-point lead in the final seven minutes, then missed a game-tying 3-pointer in the closing seconds for their fifth straight conference loss.
“We just couldn’t finish the game,” senior Vytas Sulskis said. “Scoring four points in six minutes is ridiculous.
“We didn’t execute, we started taking bad shots, turning the ball over and they got back. They’re a good team.”
The Penguins were in control for most of the game — the Raiders’ biggest lead was the final score — and seemed ready to shake off the late-game struggles that have plagued them all season.
After battling back and forth for most of the first half, YSU took the lead with 3:41 left before halftime and kept it for the next 21 minutes. The Penguins (7-11, 1-7 Horizon) took their biggest lead, 58-48, on a pair of free throws by Devonte Maymon with 6:47 left.
From that point on, YSU shot just 2 of 9 from the field with four turnovers. The Penguins were held scoreless over the last 2:45, going 0 of 5 from behind the arc.
“Turned the ball over, didn’t defensive rebound, didn’t make shots,” YSU coach Jerry Slocum said.
Still, YSU had a chance at the end to tie it.
After Wright State’s Troy Tabler made a pair of free throws with 44 seconds left to make it 65-62, Penguin junior guard Ashen Ward missed a 3-pointer from the right corner with 30 seconds left.
Maymon grabbed the offensive rebound, dished to Blake Allen and immediately got the ball back, where he missed a baseline runner. Sulskis grabbed the rebound underneath, but Wright State knocked it out of bounds.
On the inbounds play, Allen found Maymon at the top of the key for a 3-pointer with seven seconds left, but he missed it. WSU’s Matt Vest grabbed the rebound and made one of two free throws to seal it.
“We’ve just got to get through it,” said Sulskis, when asked about the Penguins’ late-game struggles. “We’re not going to quit, we’re not going to stop playing hard.
“It’s gonna happen. We’ve got a great group of guys and everyone works hard every day. We’ll get better and it will come.”
N’Gai Evans and Vaughn Duggins each scored 14 points to lead Wright State (13-7, 6-2), which shot just 32 percent from the field but held a 46-35 edge in rebounding.
Ward and Maymon each had 12 points for the Penguins, who struggled at the line (9 of 18) and behind the arc (5 of 26). Sulskis scored 11 points with nine rebounds and showed signs of coming out of his recent funk.
“Since that great — well, good — first half of the season, teams have been paying more attention to me and I don’t think I handled that too well,” he said. “Coach said I’m going to bounce back if I keep working hard and that’s what will happen.”