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Penguins take down Titans
By Greg Gulas
YOUNGSTOWN
The Youngstown State men’s basketball hasn’t had much of a problem scoring points this season.
While the Penguins again didn’t disappoint offensively against Westminster College Tuesday evening, it was their defense that limited any runs by the Titans as they played their fourth game in five days to climb back to the .500 mark.
Brett Frantz had a career-high 18 points, Braun Hartfield added a career best 17 points and added eight rebounds in the Penguins’ 97-67 victory Wednesday night at Beeghly Center. Frantz also had a career-high six 3-pointers as YSU shot 52.5 percent (32 of 61) from the field, including on 11 of 24 shots from 3-point range.
“Honestly, they pretty much left me open and those are the shots that I like to take,” Frantz said. “If they’re going to give them to me, I’m going to take them and luckily they went in tonight.”
Frantz noted that playing a fourth game in five days didn’t seem to bother the Penguins (3-3).
“I think we played well after playing three games in three days in the tournament with only a one day break,” he added. “We knew we were going to be tired and had to bring energy right at the outset, which we did.”
Six Penguins scored in double figures, including Francisco Santiago (11 points), Cameron Morse (10), Matt Donlan (10) and Devin Haygood.
Frantz also was pleased with YSU’s defensive effort.
“We knew that they were going to do a lot of dribble-weave action and kick the ball out to their shooters, so we just did our best by filling the gaps and getting our hands high when they shot,” he said. “We did a nice job on defense tonight.”
Two triples by Frantz helped the Penguins to the early 10-6 advantage as YSU never trailed in the contest.
A bucket by Jarret Vrabel at 15:55 of the opening half cut the Penguins’ lead to 10-8, but that was the closest the Titans (2-1) got as they suffered their first loss of the season.
Niles McKinley’s Cameron Kane-Johnson led Westminster with 13 points. Vrabel, a Canfield product, finished with 11 points and was one rebound shy of a double-double.
“It was really great to play against YSU, a team that I grew up following and rooting for,” Vrabel said. “We have a few players from the area on our team and all played well tonight. We fought and played hard the entire game, just trying our best to hang with them.”
Two more buckets from beyond the arc by Frantz, the last at 8:35 keyed a 20-7 run as YSU opened a 30-15 advantage.
The Penguins led 44-27 lead at the intermission, which pleased Penguins head coach Jerry Slocum.
“I’m really proud of the fact that we worked hard. I was very happy with our defensive intensity and the way that we shared the ball,” Slocum said.
He also singled out Frantz, Hartfield and Haygood for their career efforts.
“Those guys are getting better every day and I am happy for them,” Slocum said. “As for Brett, he made a really strong commitment in the spring to not only improve his game, but be happy and enjoy playing basketball. I think it’s evident that he’s played well, especially this past weekend. He’s having fun and when you’re a happy kid, you play good and he’s off to a great start.”
YSU opened its largest lead at 89-59 on a Stefan Rosic bucket in the lane.
Westminster’s Marco Delorenzo, another Canfield product, came off the bench to score the last eight points for the Titans.