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Penguins rebound for 1st win
By Greg Gulas
YOUNGSTOWN
Less than 24 hours after fouling out of Youngstown State’s season-opening loss to Kent State, the Penguins’ Bobby Hain found himself on the bench again.
This time, he committed two quick fouls and played just four minutes during Sunday’s first half against Oberlin.
But it was his play in the second half against the Yeomen that had head coach Jerry Slocum smiling. Hain scored a game-high 20 points, hauling in a game-best 11 rebounds as he led the Penguins to a 71-53 win at Beeghly Center.
For Hain, it was his 10th career double-double as he led five Penguins in double figures.
It was a game that was much closer than the final score indicated.
“We just knew we had to come out and bounce back from last night because it was a really tough loss,” Hain said. “I had some silly fouls that I felt hurt the team.
“We were upset about the loss to Kent State and we’re still learning to get better,” Hain said.
With Hain relegated to the bench, Slocum turned to an unlikely scorer to pick up the slack. Fletcher Larson, a 6-foot-8 senior forward who scored just 29 total points a season ago, played 16 minutes and scored a career-high 10-points to pace the Penguins (1-1) to a 29-22 halftime advantage.
“I think there’s a pattern going on as we guarded very, very well for 40 minutes,” Slocum said. “We guarded very, very well [against Kent State] and in the second half today our offense finally caught up to us.
”We got some good minutes from Fletch in the first-half,” Slocum said. “This is a group that is a basketball team in progress. We’ve got a long way to go before we’re a good basketball team.”
YSU built an early 17-7 lead courtesy of two triples from Marcus Keene. But the Yeomen (1-1) closed the gap with a 9-3 run of their own keyed by Matt Walker’s five points to pull to within 19-16.
Six points by Larson aided a 10-5 run by the Penguins to close the half, sending the Penguins to the locker room with a seven-point advantage.
“I thought Fletch did a really nice job today and think our fours and our fives over these first two games have given us a lot of really good minutes,” Slocum said. “I also think we’re searching in the other three spots, obviously D.J. [Cole] at the point but those other two spots is kind of going by committee right now.
“Those guys have to step it up, start playing a little bit better and start shooting the ball a little bit better.”
On three occasions in the second half, the Yeomen were able to cut the Penguins’ lead to a single point, the last coming at the 12:15 mark when a bucket from beyond the arc by Nathan Cohen sliced YSU’s lead to 42-41.
Eight straight points and 10 overall by Hain keyed a 14-3 for the Penguins.
Also in double figures for YSU were Shawn Amiker (13 points), Keene (12) and Cole (10).