YSU has slump to beat

By BRIAN DZENIS

bdzenis@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

Youngstown State point guard Darius Quisenberry has three jobs this week.

One, he and his teammates are going through finals this week before Saturday’s contest at Binghamton.

Two, he has a shooting slump to bust, which relates to the freshman’s third task, helping his teammates break their shooting skids.

Only Savannah State has attempted more threes than Youngstown State’s 342 and the Penguins have made 30 percent of those attempts.

Three of YSU’s top five scorers, Garrett Covington, Devin Morgan and Quisenberry, are all shooting 27 percent from beyond the arc. Covington is 11 for 40, Morgan is 18 for 65 and Quisenberry is 15 for 55.

“As a team, we have some guys that are hot and we need to feed them more,” Quisenberry said Monday. “Shot selection is big, even for me as a point guard.

“I have to take better shots,” Quisenberry said. “I can’t say somebody took a bad shot if I go out and take bad shots. That’s not being a good teammate. Shot selection is big, time to score is big and that’s what I have to get better at.

“I have to get guys in the right spot and get them better shots instead of having them come off the dribble for pull-up shots instead of a step-in three.”

Other than sophomore forward Naz Bohannon, Quisenberry is the only other Penguin to start every game in this year’s 3-8 campaign. He’s averaging 9.5 points and 2.6 assists a game.

“As a freshman, I have a lot on my plate just being a point guard and being a leader on the court, it’s a big step from high school,” Quisenberry said. “I think I was born ready for it and I was put in this role for a reason. I have to be strong and show up for my peers.”

Head coach Jarrod Calhoun likes Quisenberry’s effort and energy to quickly get up and down the floor, but he wants to slow the game down for his players.

“Darius is a guy that wants to go and play up and down and that’s why we recruited him, but we’re fully there yet for pressing and playing up and down,” Calhoun said. “In his defense, that’s not entirely his fault that he hasn’t played outstanding, but he’s a freshman. He’s getting better and better and by league play, you should see his numbers go up.”

For getting the whole team’s numbers up, Calhoun is rethinking his team’s reliance on the three-ball, answering “probably no” when asked if he would keep attempting about 30 threes a game.

“You don’t want your guys thinking a ton when they’re so young. I want to shoot them early, but shoot them late. I don’t want to shoot them in between,” Calhoun said. “If you look at our shots when we lost to Fordham, it was a possession game.

“Central Michigan was a possession game. [Florida International] was a possession game. Sometimes we don’t know when to shoot and when to drive.”

Calhoun has to balance wanting to maintain a free-flowing style while ensuing his players don’t have questionable shot selection. Whether it’s a two-point or three-point shot, it can’t be forced.

“I think we are going to be a three-point shooting team, there’s no doubt about it, but we’ve got to do a better job executing to get a better shot,” Calhoun said.

SMOLINSKI WINS WEEKLY AWARD

Women’s basketball guard Alison Smolinksi was named the Horizon League’s Player of the Week on Monday.

The senior from North Royalton is coming off a 23-point performance in an 90-56 win against Saint Francis (Pa.) on Saturday. She made six threes in the victory. In the previous contest against Canisius on Dec. 1, she made nine threes while scoring 29 points, setting a new school record for threes in a game.

Smolinski is averaging 14.9 points per game and her 37 made threes are second in the nation, three behind Oklahoma’s Taylor Robertson.