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YSU eyes first 4-0 start since 2001
By Joe Scalzo
YOUNGSTOWN
Kendrick Perry and Bobby Hain made plans to eat sushi, Kamren Belin tweeted a picture of his Stewie Griffin pants and Fletcher Larson looked forward to seeing “Thor.”
On Monday, the Youngstown State men’s basketball got a day off from class — and basketball.
They earned it.
Getting contributions from the usual suspects, as well as some new ones, the Penguins won three games in three days at last weekend’s Kennesaw State Tournament and will host Warren Wilson on Thursday with a chance to start 4-0 for the first time since 2001.
“Going into that [three-day stretch], especially Friday during the day, I was sitting there going, ‘What are we doing?’ ” YSU coach Jerry Slocum said. “I think the positive of it all was, obviously we won games, but our basketball IQ was really good.
“The adjustments that we made, the Xs and Os, little things that we wanted to take away from those games — I give the kids all the credit. Their basketball IQ was really sharp in this tournament. They played really well.”
No one played better than Perry, who averaged 22 points, six rebounds, 5.7 rebounds and 2.3 steals per game while shooting 51.1 percent from the field in wins over Kennesaw State (73-56), Florida International (74-72 in OT) and Eastern Kentucky (75-67).
On Monday, he was named the Horizon League’s player of the week for the fourth time in his career.
“It helps having your leader, like KP is, play like he played in that tournament,” Slocum said. “He was really special.”
YSU also got big weekends from Belin, who made the game-winner against FIU after Perry fouled out, and sophomore Ryan Weber, who showed why he earned a starting spot in the offseason by averaging 15 points, five rebounds and two steals.
“He was a significant factor,” Slocum said of Weber.
Maybe the most encouraging sign was the play of YSU’s bench, particularly freshman guard Marcus Keene, who averaged nine points, three rebounds and two assists per game.
“When we put those guys [reserves] in, we didn’t lose anything,” Slocum said. “They don’t have to hit home runs. All they have to do is play solid and those guys were really solid.”
Warren Wilson (2-2), a Division II school from Asheville, N.C., played Kennesaw State on Monday, the first of a four-game stretch that ends Thursday in Youngstown. The Penguins should be able to use the game against the Owls as a tuneup for Sunday’s game at the University of Massachusetts.
“It gives us a much-needed home game,” Slocum said. “Then we go to a very, very, very good UMass team.”