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YSU unable to catch Kent State
Penguins hurt by
rebounding deficit
By MARTY GITLIN
KENT
A basketball battle began Saturday night. But a game of Carrot on a Stick broke out.
Kent State dangled the carrot. Youngstown State chased it and never snagged it. The result was a 79-70 defeat to the Golden Flashes in the season opener for both teams.
The Penguins had a chance to grab the carrot after sophomore guard Cameron Morse nailed a 3-pointer to chop a deficit his team had from the start to 70-67. But forward and premier returnee Bobby Hain (game-high 20 points) missed one from downtown, then Kent guard Xavier Pollard hit two at the line. A steal and three-point play by teammate Kellon Thomas iced the victory.
And in the end, the Penguins had lost it on the boards. They were outrebounded 53-34, including 18-7 on the offensive glass. Veteran coach Jerry Slocum, who was denied his 700th career win, lamented that difference, as well as his team’s failures down the stretch, in no uncertain terms.
“We couldn’t rebound the basketball and I was very, very disappointed with how we performed in the last three minutes and couldn’t get the shots we wanted,” Slocum said. “You’re not going to win a basketball game against a quality team when you get outrebounded [by 19]. It’s as simple as that. I think they were more aggressive and I think they were tougher than our guys.”
Hain, who did yank down a team-best seven rebounds, wasn’t about to argue.
“We got outworked,” he said. “They killed us in the first half and there’s no excuse for it.”
That the Penguins managed to hang around prior to intermission was a bit surprising considering a distinct quickness disadvantage that at least contributed to monumental struggles on their defensive boards. The Flashes snuck inside for 11 offensive rebounds before intermission, at which point they would have led by more than seven had they not failed to cash in on several put-backs.
Kent secured the lead to stay at 5-2 on a 3-pointer by Thomas. His team stretched it to 13-4 five minutes into the game on a sweet and long alley-oop bucket from Jalen Avery to Marvin Jones.
YSU spent the rest of the half playing cat-and-mouse with the Flashes, closing the gap, then falling back, which proved to be the theme after the team returned to the court as well. The Penguins cut their deficit to 22-18 on a steal and driving hoop by Morse, but Kent matched its biggest lead of the game soon thereafter at 27-18 on a tip-in by Khaliq Spicer, who paced his team with 18 points.
The Flashes stretched it to 38-27 late in the half, but by that time YSU was playing far superior zone defense, no longer getting beaten off the dribble and consistently contesting shots. The Penguins trailed by just seven heading into the locker room after sophomore guard Francisco Santiago drained a driving bank shot to make it 40-33.
KSU threatened a blowout early in the second half, pushing its lead to 47-34 on a Jimmy Hall put-back. But YSU surged after the carrot again, cutting the deficit to 57-52 on a three-point play by Hain and then to 65-63 with five minutes remaining on successive 3-pointers by forward Matt Donlan (15 points).
In the end, the Flashes simply performed better with the game on the line.
“We knew that when a situation like happens, we have to refocus, especially with the young guys we have,” Thomas said. “We tried to calm them down and let them know that it was still our game to take.”
In other words, Kent took the carrot and ran away with it.