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YSU’s Santiago pays back Vikings
Point guard helps
Penguins top CSU
By STEVE WILAJ
CLEVELAND
As a kid growing up in Cleveland, Francisco Santiago — who wears No. 23 as Youngstown State’s sophomore starting point guard — always dreamt of playing for North Carolina because of Michael Jordan.
But when he hit the fifth grade (and became more realistic), the St. Ignatius graduate’s dad posed a question.
“My father told me, ‘Cleveland State is right down the road, would you want to go there?’” Santiago said following his terrific performance in YSU’s 70-55 win against CSU at Quicken Loans Arena on Sunday. “I was like, ‘Really? I can stay home and play Division I?’ So, yeah, that’s where I wanted to go.
“From fifth grade on, I just wanted to go to Cleveland State — but they never really budged. They never came to watch me play. So going to Youngstown State, I knew I’d be able to play them twice a year.”
Playing for the first time against his hometown university that never gave him a chance, Santiago recorded 12 points, six rebounds, five assists and five steals. Penguins head coach Jerry Slocum called the performance, “As solid as a point guard effort that I’ve had in a while, in terms of the last 2-3 years.”
Santiago said: “To come here for the first time and play well and get a big win here, it’s just super emotional.”
The 6-foot-1, 160-pounder is in his first active season with YSU after transferring from Wheeling Jesuit prior to last season and sitting out the 2014-15 campaign. He’s averaging 7.8 points, four rebounds and 4.1 assists per game in 21 starts.
At St. Ignatius, Santiago led his team to a 21-4 record as a senior and averaged 16 points and five rebounds. He was then a first-team Division I All-Ohio selection — although that didn’t impress his backyard university’s head coach.
Actually, when asked about Santiago after Sunday’s contest, Cleveland State head coach Gary Waters — in his 10th season with the Vikings — was initially reluctant to credit YSU’s point guard.
“I wasn’t crazy about that,” Waters said of not recruiting Santiago. “Do you think that would get us to the top of this league? I mean, be real. I mean, we’re both 7-12 and 7-13, so you think I want to change players and stay at 7-12?
“Even though the kid did play a pretty good game. I gotta give him credit. He controlled the tempo and did some things well.”
Understandably, Santiago was emotionally charged throughout the game. Not too much, though — which Slocum made a point to discuss with his point guard.
“We talked about him keeping his focus and forgetting his surroundings if you can,” Slocum said. “Just remember who you are and play to our style. I thought he did a really good job with that.”
But finally at the six-minute mark of the second half, Santiago let loose a bit.
After making the back-end of two free throws, he stole Cleveland State’s inbounds pass and snapped the ball to Cameron Morse, who buried a 3-pointer to put the Penguins ahead by 16.
The Vikings then called a timeout as Santiago clapped and stomped and waved his arms at midcourt in celebration — his father doing the same in his seat behind YSU’s basket.
“I was really excited to come home,” Santiago said. “There was a lot of emotions going through when we were warming up and also when we were here this morning — just looking around and seeing ‘Cleveland State’ on the floor. It was something I’ve been waiting for all year.”