Tuesday, January 19, 2016
By STEVE WILAJ
YOUNGSTOWN
Boy, how a week changed things for Youngstown State.
On Jan. 11, the Penguins were coming off a quality home win against Green Bay. But with a 96-65 loss to Valparaiso at the Beeghly Center on Monday, the Penguins capped a five-day stretch in which they went 0-3 and lost games by 20, 36 and 31 points.
“A week ago on Monday, we felt really good about ourselves,” head coach Jerry Slocum said. “We’ve had a horrific week. We have not guarded, we have not shot the ball well. That’s probably my biggest concern — how much our poor offensive performances are effecting our defensive end of the floor.”
For the third straight game, YSU (7-13, 2-5 Horizon League) played poorly on both ends. The Penguins shot just 41 percent from the field (6 of 19 on 3-pointers), while conference-leading Valparaiso (16-3, 6-0) scorched YSU for 47 percent shooting.
Also, YSU — which played without starting center Sidney Umude (injured on Saturday at Wright State) in addition to starting forward Bobby Hain (foot injury on Dec. 21) — was outrebounded by the Crusaders, 51-20.
“We’ve got to get past missing some shots and having our heads go down and then having that effect the defensive end,” Slocum said.
The Penguins — whose lone bright spot was sophomore guard Cameron Morse with 23 points — fell behind 52-28 after the first half.
Valpo — which was paced by 18 points apiece from Alec Peters and Darien Walker — shot 52 percent from the field (7 of 15 on 3-pointers). Meanwhile, Morse scored 14 points for the Penguins in the first 20 minutes, but YSU shot just 39 percent and the Crusaders grabbed 10 of their game-total 21 offensive rebounds.
“As a staff, we probably spent 45-50 hours in prep time for them and really talked about boxing out,” said Slocum, whose Penguins entered allowing 14 offensive rebounds per game in their past six games. “We were talking about the fact that they’re probably the best offensive rebounding team that I’ve seen in this league ever. With that being one of our game emphases, it’s discouraging.”
Vashil Fernandez paced Valpo with 12 rebounds, while Tevonn Walker added nine.
“I thought our guys were aggressive going to the boards,” Crusaders coach Bryce Drew said. “We start three guys 6-foot-8 or taller, so I thought their effort was big for us tonight.”
Morse’s game-high point total came on 10 of 16 shooting. He has now notched five 20-plus point scoring contests in six conference games.
However, the Penguins have allowed 80-plus points in nine straight games, including 90-plus in five of them.
“We’re searching for it,” Slocum said. “We’ve looked at everything. Obviously the road’s not kind and then you come back to maybe the best team that’s been in this league since Butler.
“There’s a lot of things you can point at. But it comes down to these young group of guys working hard and fighting through it.”
Next, YSU hits the road for three games — at Cleveland State (Sunday), at UIC (Jan. 28) and at Valparaiso (Jan. 30) — before returning home on Feb. 4 against Oakland.