Penguins trying to break Horizon League logjam

By Charles Grove | January 31, 2017 at 12:05a.m.

youngstown

With a month left in the season and eight games to go, the Youngstown State men’s basketball team knows it’s time to make a move in the Horizon League standings.

The Penguins (10-13 overall) currently are 4-6 in the conference and sit in seventh place in the 10-team league. But teams three through eight all are within two games of each other so there’s likely to be plenty of jockeying for seeding for the conference tournament as the regular season winds down.

“I was talking to Cam [Morse] yesterday and we were talking about how we’re basically two possessions from being tied for third in the league,” junior Francisco Santiago said. “We can’t get those games back so we need to make a statement here.”

That statement will be made if the Penguins can win their next two home games against Oakland and Detroit. The Golden Grizzlies (16-7, 6-4) are one of the league’s best, according to YSU head coach Jerry Slocum while Detroit (5-17, 3-7) beat YSU 87-71 on Jan 16.

“Oakland presents a huge problem for us,” Slocum said. “They play closer to the basket than anyone in the league. That’s their clear strength. They like to post you up and play around the rim and get four guys on the offensive glass. Post defense and rebounds will be huge.”

Despite the size advantage, Oakland hasn’t really found their footing yet in conference play, falling to Detroit, Wright State and Cleveland State in conference play already.

“They’re the most talented team in the league,” Slocum said. “They’re the kind of team in the middle of February that finds themselves and runs it and you’re not surprised.”

The Penguins played what Slocum called the best defensive performance of the season by his team Saturday against Cleveland State in a 67-64 win. But Slocum knows there’s a lot more out there for his team in terms of improvement.

“I felt we were fortunate against Cleveland State,” Slocum said. “I didn’t think we played very good. We had too many turnovers. I felt we played with great character and toughness but I don’t think we played what I would call an x’s and o’s game.”

Even if it wasn’t a great performance from a gameplan perspective, the Penguins still played well against the Vikings, holding Cleveland State to just 39 percent from the floor. Santiago knows defense will be the key for YSU down the stretch of the regular season.

“We’re trying to rely more in defense because certain days shots aren’t going to fall but you can always control what you do defensively and the effort you give every night,” Santiago said.

Santiago noticed a direct correlation between helpside defense in wins and losses for YSU so far this year.

“A lot of our wins we’ve not played great defensively but we played together defensively,” Santiago said. “Wright State [was an example]. Akron too. Everyone was helping each other. In games we’ve lost we see on film where we’re not in gaps and not helping on drives.

“We’ve got to be consistent in every game with [defense].”