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Penguins seeking Horizon victory
By Curtis Pulliam
Youngstown
The Youngstown State men’s basketball is searching for a couple of things in tonight’s game with Valparaiso — someone to come up big and the Penguins’ first Horizon League victory.
“You get to the moment of truth in your games and you need to have guys step up and make plays,” YSU head coach Jerry Slocum said at Monday’s press conference. “We just have not done that during this stretch.”
The Penguins (9-12, 0-6 Horizon) are on a six-game slide with the most recent loss coming to Cleveland State, 74-61, on Saturday.
Despite the winless start to conference play, Slocum said he believes his team has showed some positives.
“We have played good enough basketball I think to be competitive,” Slocum said. “But we have not had that go-to person that’s going to make a play.”
While the competitive drive is still there, Slocum realizes his team’s miscues.
“Every night it seems to be a different thing that is rising up, which is discouraging in some regards,” Slocum said. “I thought we did a better job on the glass [against Cleveland State] but we had 17 turnovers.”
The turnovers aren’t the only things that has hurt the Penguins during the skid.
“Two nights before that [at Milwaukee] you do a really good job with the turnovers but you give up too many offensive rebounds,” Slocum said. “Another night you don’t shoot the ball well.”
Slocum feels his team is its own worst enemy.
“I think the one thing we have to address the most is the fact that we’re in a situation that we’re beating ourselves more than our opponents beating us,” Slocum said. “And that’s the thing that has to change.”
Slocum feels his team has to focus more with the little things.
“We have to make sure we do a better job on the fundamental stuff like rebounding, making free throws and taking care of the basketball,” Slocum said. “When that stuff starts to happen then I think you will see better basketball out of this group.”
One bright spot against the Vikings was senior Shawn Amiker who had 11 points in 30 minutes.
Amiker had just six points in his three previous conference games.
“Obviously he played a lot better Saturday night than he had been playing over the last two weeks,” Slocum said. “I’ll still say that Shawn and DJ [Cole] as seniors they have to be our backbone. They have to play well.”
The Penguins are up against a tough Crusaders team (17-3, 4-1) that is in second place behind the Vikings.
The Crusaders beat the Penguins at Valparaiso, 79-64, on Jan. 4.
Slocum knows his team has a tough task ahead.
“You’re looking at Valpo, who I think is the best team in the league,” Slocum said. “They play with passion, and they have really good size.”
The Crusaders’ size includes sophomore forward 6-9 Alec Peters, who’s averaging 17.8 points per game.
“He’s a player of the year candidate,” Slocum said.
Slocum was also impressed by center 6-10 Vashil Fernandez, who is averaging 2.2 blocks per game in conference play.
“I don’t think there has been anybody in the league since Damian [Eargle] that’s had an affect at the rim as he does,” Slocum said. “They have a nice mixture of interior play and perimeter play.”