43
Penguins spread wealth vs. Westminster
By Joe Catullo Jr.
YOUNGSTOWN
Heading into Saturday morning’s game against Westminster, Youngstown State coach Jerry Slocum set a goal.
It was to have at least 20 assists that would show him how unselfish the Penguins are. And they did just that with 23 assists in a 108-57 victory.
“The thing that made me the happiest was that we shared the ball. We played very unselfish,” Slocum said. “I told our guys that I’d be very disappointed if we didn’t have over 20 assists. That’s an indication of how well you share it.”
Along with reaching their goal, the Penguins (6-1) broke a new school record with 66 rebounds. They broke the old record of 64 set on Jan. 26, 1987 against Tennessee Tech.
YSU also collected more offensive rebounds (26) than the Titans (0-4) had overall, which was 20.
The Penguins came out firing and never let up, leading by 30 points at halftime.
“Obviously in these kinds of games, you have a level of excellence that you want,” Slocum said. “Today, I think we did it from beginning to end. The other day I thought we started out poorly and finished badly.”
Besides the assists, another goal was getting the younger guys more playing time, which Slocum said would be an emphasis during Monday’s press conference. Marcus Keene led the bench 15 points and six assists. Jalon Plummer finished with 11 points.
“That’s exactly what you want out of these kinds of games,” Slocum said. “You want to keep your edge. You want to execute well. You want to throw those young guys in there and let them see.”
As for the starters, Bobby Hain finished with a team-high 16 points and nine rebounds (six offensive). Kendrick Perry scored 13 points, tallied six assists, three steals and five rebounds.
YSU shot 45.9 percent from the field, 39.4 in 3-pointers and 87.1 from the foul line. The starters made all 15 free throw attempts as Perry led with seven.
For the Titans, Paul Carswell finished with a game-high 21 points and a team-high six rebounds. Nobody else that played scored more than seven points. Westminster shot 30.8 percent from the field and 35.7 from beyond the 3-point line.
“I thought all of our guys played very well today,” Slocum said. “I thought we shared the ball well. I thought we showed some good aggressiveness on the glass in terms of going to get it.”
Saturday’s game marked the 47th meeting between Westminster and YSU, and the first time since 1981. The Penguins now trail 29-18 in the all-time series.
Next for the Penguins is a trip to Kent State on Wednesday. The Penguins fell to KSU, 85-78, in overtime at Beeghly Center on Nov. 28, 2012.
“I think they’re better than they’ve been,” Slocum said. “We’ve got our hands full. We’re going to have to play a solid game at both ends of the floor for us to be able to compete with those guys.”