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YSU basketball teams open Horizon League play tonight
Both Youngstown State basketball teams begin Horizon League Tournament play in opening-round games tonight in Detroit.
The YSU men are the ninth seed and will play eighth-seeded Cleveland State while the women are the eighth seed and will play ninth-seeded Valparaiso.
“We feel confident,” first-team All-Horizon League guard Cameron Morse said of his team’s chances against Cleveland State. “If we beat them we get Oakland which will be a tough matchup but I still feel like we can get the job done.
“It’s a rivalry game. It’s a big game for us and at Cleveland State they feel the same way about us.”
If the Penguin men (11-20) can get through the Vikings and Golden Grizzlies they’ll earn a day off before the schedule calls for two straight days to close our the tournament.
“I feel like the first two games are winnable games and if we come out aggressive and play hard we’ll be just fine,” Morse said.
The trip to the conference tournament was especially meaningful for Morse as the team made a stop at his hometown of Flint, Mich., and donated 70 cases of water to the Pentecostal Tabernacle Church, Morse’s church.
“I felt like this was a good way to give back to the city,” Morse said. “We’re trying to be part of the solution and not the problem.”
Head coach Jerry Slocum said point guard Francisco Santiago came up with the idea of the donation.
“It’s been well-documented the people in Flint have been without clean water for two years,” Slocum said. “Our hearts are sensitive to those kinds of issues, especially when one of our players is from there and his whole family is living in that area.”
On the women’s side, their path is very similar. Win the first-round game and the prize is top-seeded Green Bay.
And if YSU (9-20) is to make some noise in the tournament, it’s likely that Horizon League Freshman of the Year Mary Dunn will play a big part in the team’s success.
“Coach Barnes called me and told me [I won],” Dunn said. “I was really happy. I was a little surprised but I was just thankful for my team and coaches.”
Barnes said he’s been especially impressed with Dunn’s play because of how vital the post positions are to his style of offense.
“I think Mary has matured a lot and has handled the pressure of being our go-to post player,” Barnes said. “It’s no secret we try to run our offense through the post first. When Sarah [Cash] went down that put a lot of pressure on her to come out right away and perform and she did a great job handling it very well.”
Dunn said being forced to adapt to the next level’s tempo was her biggest gain this year but she says she’s also far from a finished product.
“Playing with the speed of the game [was my biggest strength],” Dunn said. “I still need to step up on defense a lot more, but the experience I’ve gained has helped me a lot.”
Dunn was out with a foot injury when YSU played at Valparaiso in February, which meant Valpo’s 6-foot-4 center Amber Lindfors feasted on YSU’s small lineup.
“That was the biggest matchup problem,” Barnes said. “[Lindfors] had 22 points and [11] rebounds. They went from 13 offensive rebounds a game to 21 against us, so not having Mary with us was a big part last time.”