43
Penguins show life in loss
By Joe Scalzo
YOUNGSTOWN
With just under five minutes left in Tuesday’s game and the outcome no longer in doubt, Valparaiso’s 6-foot-10 senior Vashil Fernandez found himself wide open under the basket for an easy slam.
Youngstown State’s 6-4 sophomore Osandai Vaughn came from the weak side anyway, jumping to contest the dunk.
Didn’t work. Fernandez slammed it home and Vaughn hit the floor.
“I’m gonna jump every time,” said Vaughn, who admitted he would watch ESPN Tuesday night to see if it showed highlights of the dunk. “It was a good dunk, he just caught me slipping. It happens to the best of us.”
Vaughn’s play didn’t change anything — YSU lost 77-62, dropping its seventh straight game — but it was symbolic. Unlike the past few games, the Penguins (9-13, 0-7 Horizon League) kept competing even when things weren’t going well.
“I thought the kids played hard tonight,” YSU coach Jerry Slocum. “I thought we saw some good things from some of our younger guys tonight. I thought Osandai played well, Cam Morse is getting better. But like I said, our margin of error is so small at times.”
Vaughn scored 17 points — one off his career-high — and Morse had 10 in 25 minutes off the bench. Shawn Amiker added 12 points (all in the first half) and six rebounds and Bobby Hain had 11.
Alec Peters had 18 points for the Crusaders (18-3, 5-1), who led for 38 minutes and were never really threatened.
Valparaiso was too tall — it starts three players 6-8 or taller — and too talented for YSU to have a chance, but Slocum focused on two small victories: holding Valpo under 10 offensive rebounds (the Crusaders had six, less than half their average) while committing fewer than 10 turnovers (the Penguins had five, less than half their average).
“We’ve got some deficiencies — I’m not going to hide from it, lie about it, sugarcoat it,” Slocum said. “You can put it on me. It’s as simple as that. We’ve got to get better and I think we’re really close.”
Slocum has avoided talking about Ryan Weber’s transfer (the junior-to-be left for Ball State in the offseason), but when asked about it Tuesday, he admitted it’s been a factor in the losing streak, especially after graduating first team all-conference guard Kendrick Perry as well as Kamren Belin.
“Losing that third guy hurt us,” he said.
Valparaiso coach Bryce Drew said his team went through something similar in 2008-09, losing Bryan Bouchie (to Evansville) and Samuel Haanpaa (who left to play professionally in Europe). The Crusaders went 9-22 that year.
“When you have a player transfer that you’re counting on, you just can’t replace it,” Drew said. “It took us at least two years to recover from a key player that left us. Especially at our level, if you get a guy that can really score the ball and he plays and he’s an underclassman, you build your future around him. So, now all the sudden you have to train a freshman or a new player and it takes time. That’s a big blow that they couldn’t prepare for.”
When asked what the Crusaders did, Drew laughed and said, “We lost. We were 9-23, I think.
“Coach Slocum has won a boatload of games, more games than I’ll ever win. He knows what he’s doing. This team will bounce back and they’re gonna win some games.”