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Penguins’ streak snapped
By Greg Gulas
YOUNGSTOWN
The Youngstown State men’s basketball team won’t soon forget how American University denied the Penguins a fifth straight victory.
Penguin head coach Jerry Slocum is still trying to figure out why his team lacked offensive focus.
Jesse Reed scored 20 points while eight second-half triples helped the Eagles overcome a 10-point halftime deficit for a 60-56 victory Friday at Beeghly Center.
“Disappointed to the max, it was a very, very disappointing loss,” Slocum said. “I don’t think that we played with much intensity tonight; we played with very little offensive focus.”
It was the fifth stop of a six-game road trip for American (2-5), who have now won two of its last three outings after starting 0-4 like the Penguins.
“Give [American] credit — they play a very deliberate, slow tempo style but we met the enemy tonight and the enemy was us,” Slocum said.
Reed scored five of the Eagles’ first seven points, including the first of his game-high four triples as American raced to a 7-4 advantage.
Four points by Sidney Umude keyed a 9-3 run by YSU (4-5) as the Penguins opened a 13-10 lead at the 12:29 mark.
Cameron Morse, Francisco Santiago, Matt Donlan and Jordan Andrews combined to score 17 of the game’s next 24 points, which allowed the Penguins to close with a 32-22 halftime advantage.
YSU was clicking offensively after the first 20 minutes of play, canning 14 of 27 field goal attempts while the Penguin defense held the Eagles to just 9-of-27 from the field and a meager 2-of-13 from beyond the arc.
The second half, however, was a totally different story.
A bucket by Reed cut the Penguins’ lead to 34-26, but two free throws by Bobby Hain 12 seconds later made it a 10-point Penguin cushion once again, 34-24.
That’s when the tide began to change. Two triples and a bucket by Reed, and two buckets from downtown by James Washington started an 11-2 run by the Eagles as they took a 38-36 lead.
A hoop by Marko Vasic and another triple by Washington increased the American lead to 43-38, but the Penguins stormed back with an 8-3 run of their own, aided by Umude’s four points as they forged a 46-46 deadlock with 7:23 left.
In the final 6:15, there were six lead changes, the last coming at 1:22 when Reed connected on his final triple of the night as the Eagles increased their lead to 58-54.
There were four ties and 15 lead changes in the game.
A Vasic bucket with 58 seconds remaining cut the Eagles’ margin to 58-56, but two free throws by Jalen Rhea with 1.5 ticks left sealed the victory.
Rhea finished with eight points on the night, but scored five of American’s last seven points.
“My teammates kept us in the game,” Rhea said. “I wasn’t shooting too well at the beginning, but then my shots began to fall and that’s all I can ask for.
“We were just trying to move the ball as fast as we could.” Rhea said. “We knew that if we could get it moving then we would get some open shots.
The Penguins were 24 of 55 overall from the field, but connected on just 10 of 28 (35.7 percent) attempts in the second half.
American ended making 23-of-53 from the field and 10-of-28 from three-point range.