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Penguins again stumble
By Steve WILAJ
YOUNGSTOWN
It was a situation the Youngstown State men’s basketball team has become accustomed to this season.
Late in the first half on Thursday, the Penguins trailed Wright State by just four points. They then gave up a bucket, committed a turnover and — with head coach Jerry Slocum sensing another stretch of bad play coming — called a timeout.
“I took the timeout to talk about that specifically to say, ‘We’re here. We’ve been here,’” Slocum said. “Then we finished the half with five turnovers.
“So that really was the ball game. Our margin of error is that we cannot do those things.”
Dropping its third straight game, YSU fell to Wright State, 87-81, at Beeghly Center. The Penguins were done in by an 11-2 Raiders flurry to close the first half.
WSU (18-12, 12-5 Horizon League) stretched its four-point lead to 13 points at the break and never looked back.
“The one thing that we had to do with how their schedule played out, we had to try to pressure them, create some turnovers and get some transition baskets,” said Raiders coach Billy Donlon, referencing to YSU (10-20, 5-12) coming off games on Saturday and Monday at Green Bay and Milwaukee. “I thought we finally wore them down the last three or four minutes of the first half.”
YSU, which was led by sophomore guard Cameron Morse’s 29 points, committed 16 turnovers, with 12 coming in its poor first half.
The Penguins trailed by 10 points for nearly the entire second half until finally threatening late.
With 2:35 remaining, freshman forward Bryce Nickels finished an and-1 layup to cut Wright State’s lead to 78-72. Morse then banked in a 3-pointer with 1:33 left to cut the Penguins’ deficit to 80-75.
YSU received the ball back at the one-minute mark trailing by six, but committed a turnover.
After two WSU free throws, Morse made another 3 with 36.6 seconds left to make it 83-78 Raiders, but Wright State then iced the contest with three foul shots.
“This team is very physical,” Morse said. “They bump you when you don’t have the ball and try to keep you out of the paint. They did a good job of that tonight.
“But I feel like we’re headed in the right direction. Last time we played Wright State, we lost by 36 at their place [on Jan. 16]. Losing by six this time, I feel like that’s a big step.”
Michael Karena, the Raiders’ center who entered averaging just nine points per game, paced Wright State with 26 points on 11 of 15 shooting. He scored 14 points in the first half.
“Believe it or not, on the scouting report, that was our emphasis,” Slocum said of guarding Karena. “We knew that they go to him against us because we don’t play well against him down there. We got abused in the post.”
YSU, which also received 18 points from Matt Donlan, shot 50.8 percent for the game.
However, the Penguins allowed Wright State to shoot 61 percent from the field, as guard Mark Alstork added 21 points. Freshman guard Mark Hughes, a 2015 Ursuline graduate, started and scored six points in 14 minutes for the Raiders.
“Every spring, we say, ‘Which Youngstown State player is gonna develop kind out of left field,’” Donlon said. “And it’s Cameron Morse.
“As a sophomore to be doing what he’s doing. And their other guys with Morse — Santiago, Donlan are good — but if they had Bobby Hain [out with a broken foot], it’d be different. I think it’s important to say that.”