YSU men feeling better on offense

January 29, 2015 at 12:09a.m.

YOUNGSTOWN

Most of the coaches in the Horizon League have an identity. Gary Waters’ teams at Cleveland State win with pressure defense. Bryce Drew’s roster at Valparaiso usually has an international flavor. Wright State’s Billy Donlon seems to lead the universe in gritty players.

And Jerry Slocum’s best teams at Youngstown State tend to shoot well, with five of the school’s top six career 3-point shooters coming from his 10-year tenure.

“The last three or four years, we’ve been very good shooting the basketball,” Slocum said after the Jan. 20 loss to Valparaiso. “We’ve not shot the ball well [this year].”

That changed in the second half of last week’s win over UIC. The Penguins (10-13, 1-7 Horizon League) made 15 of 22 shots to rally for a 77-64 victory.

“It’s just not as complicated as everybody wants to make it to be,” Slocum said. “When shots go in, you feel better about yourself, your confidence grows, you play better defensively.”

Sophomore Marcus Keene, one of the team’s best outside shooters, played particularly well against the Flames, scoring 19 points on 6 of 8 shooting (4 of 6 from behind the arc). His 3-pointer with 90 seconds left put the game out of reach.

“We had a couple turnovers before that shot and coach just said to shoot the last shot,” Keene said. “I made a good move and made the shot and it was a good confidence [boost] for our team.”

“It [the win] was a big confidence boost for us. A lot of confidence for myself because I had been struggling shooting the ball and I shot pretty well the other day.”

YSU will get a much bigger test tonight at Detroit (10-12, 3-4), which is just fifth in the conference in scoring defense (68.1 points per game) but has the potential to create matchup nightmares.

“I think they’re the most talented defensive team that’s been in our league in a while,” Slocum said. “They’ve got five guys that can all guard and they’re all 6-7, 6-6, 6-8 and just long and lean.”

Stepping up

Slocum said he’s been happy with how some of his younger players have developed this season, particularly sophomore small forward Osandai Vaughn (who has scored in double figures in eight of his nine starts) and freshman guard Cameron Morse (who has 10 points off the bench in each of the last two games).

“They’re really playing well,” Slocum said. “It’s funny the maturation of the season goes. There was a long time there where we were really struggling at that three [small forward] spot and now we’re getting great production. Now the four spot has become a position where we’re struggling at. Hopefully we can start hitting on all cylinders the last five weeks.”

Senior Shawn Amiker is YSU’s starting power forward and he’s had an inconsistent season. He’s averaging just 5.1 points in Horizon League play and managed just two points in 23 minutes against UIC.

“I don’t think anybody, especially Shawn, would indicate that he’s played well,” Slocum said. “He knows it, we know it, you know it. Does it hurt him? Yes. Does he have a big heart and he feels bad about it? Yes. Is he working hard every day to change it? Yes.”