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Allen powers YSU men over Central Michigan
The YSU senior scored a game-high 20 points on Senior Night.
By Joe Catullo Jr.
YOUNGSTOWN
During a quiet atmosphere with butterflies in their stomachs, Blake Allen’s parents listened to their son’s first-half performance in a taxi headed toward Youngstown.
Even when Allen scored 11 first-half points, nobody was cheering.
“He’s been kind of struggling a little bit this year, so we were just kind of hoping and praying they would go in,” said Leonard Allen, Blake’s father. “It was nice to see him have a nice game on his final regular-season home game.”
The family arrived as halftime concluded and watched Blake finish with a game-high 20 points on Senior Night during the Penguins’ 86-75 victory over Central Michigan, of the Mid-American Conference.
“It went fast,” Leonard Allen said, regarding his son’s college career. “I wish we could watch him play more, but it’s been a good career. It went really fast.”
The Penguins (16-12) were supposed to honor Blake Allen and Damian Eargle before the game, but a flight cancellation postponed it to after the final buzzer. The Allens planned on leaving from Florida into Pittsburgh at 1:41 p.m., but the flight was cancelled.
The next flight was scheduled to leave at 4:50 but was pushed back. By the time they got in a taxi, it was already 7 p.m. The Allens will depart Monday morning before YSU heads to Valparaiso.
Eargle played his first game since breaking his nose on Feb. 10. Playing with a facemask, he scored 10 points in 14 minutes and dealt with foul trouble throughout. Eargle now stands 11 points away from 1,000 career points at YSU.
Though Eargle returned, Kendrick Perry was absent due to a dislocated knee. He leads the team averaging 16.9 points per game.
“When you lose a player like KP, he’s obviously you’re leading scorer, he’s your leading assists guy, he’s your best free throw shooter and he’s your best perimeter defender,” said coach Jerry Slocum. “For us to come out and put up 86 points against a team that’s from the MAC, our team deserved a ton of credit for working hard and believing.”
Slocum added Perry will be reevaluated twice a week to see where his progress is and if he can return this season.
Ryan Weber started in Perry’s place and scored nine points in 30 minutes. D.J. Cole also filled the void with 12 points and 12 assists.
While fans cheered the Penguins, one could also hear cheering for Youngstown native Kyle Randall. The Chippewas’ senior guard —a Kennedy Catholic graduate — finished with 17 points.
“There was a good group that was here for me,” Randall said. “I’m proud of myself to try to represent them the way that I do, and that’s who I do it for. I do it for my support group. They’ve been behind me this whole way, so I’m glad that they came out.”
Central Michigan (9-17) arrived in Youngstown Friday evening. Randall attended the Girard-Poland basketball game to watch his brother, Craig, play for the Indians.
“Everything went according to plan except the result of the game,” Randall said. “When you come home, you want to do good with the people that you grew up with, so it would have been nice to get the win.”