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YSU basketball teams gear up for tournaments
youngstown
The regular seasons are coming to an end for the Youngstown State men’s and women’s basketball teams and both are looking to gain some momentum before the Horizon League tournaments.
The men currently sit in eighth place, one game up on last-place Cleveland State. The Penguins will visit the Vikings Saturday. The women are in seventh place and finish out the regular season against fifth-place Oakland tonight and third-place Detroit Mercy on Saturday.
The men are coming off a wild game in Michigan, where Oakland scored 59 points in the second half and beat YSU 101-72.
“We played well for the first 25 or so minutes,” YSU men’s head coach Jerry Slocum said. “Their size wore us down in the second half. We missed six foul-shot opportunities (two were front ends of one-and-ones) and we had four shot turnovers where we took bad shots. They went on a 16-0 run and that was the end of it.”
Cleveland State should be a totally different game. The Vikings want to keep scoring on the low side.
“They’re a very good defensive basketball team,” Slocum said. “They want games in the 60s and 50s. I’m sure both teams are disappointed by their year and we’ll see who puts their situation behind them and plays the hardest.”
When asked if he could describe the season in a word, Slocum chose “inconsistent.”
“We’ve had inconsistent play over the course of the year,” Slocum said. “We’ve played as good as any team has played since I’ve coached here and that started on opening day with Akron. Then there was Green Bay and Wright State. But our margin for error isn’t very big.”
YSU women’s head coach John Barnes is hoping more time for prepare for Oakland this time around will give his Penguins more of a chance than they had in January when the Golden Grizzlies won 80-54.
“[On the road] that was the second game of a weekend trip,” Barnes said. “This time we’ve had this whole week to get ready for pressuring, denying and switching. I hope that has helped us. We just have to remain calm and make good decisions.”
It’s been a difficult season for Barnes to categorize. Expectations were high until Nikki Arbanas, Sarah Cash and Kelsea Newman all went down with season-ending injuries, but younger athletes have been stepping up all year.
“When your top three returners go down I was concerned with winning any games,” Barnes said. “Now we’re on the brink of double-digit wins. I wouldn’t say I’m happy with it, but things could’ve been a lot worse.”
Alison Smolinski is one of those players who responded. The sophomore has more 3-pointers (53) than any other player in the country over the past five weeks.
“I’m happy with how young players have stepped up and taken the reins of a Division-I team,” Barnes said. “Alison has been unbelievable with how much she’s grown as a player and how much more aggressive she is.
“Mary Dunn is getting Horizon League Freshman of the Week four times now I think and is up for Freshman of the Year. You can go on and on with players who have been thrown into tough situations and grown.”