| Humphrey's Effort Pushes Flames to Brink in Overtime Loss |
| Saturday, December 31 2005 |
| Courtesy of: |
| Chicago, Ill. -- Quin Humphrey scored a career-best 33 points but the Youngstown State men's basketball team just couldn't get one final break as the Penguins lost 85-84 in overtime at UIC on Saturday afternoon at the UIC Pavilion. Humphrey sent the game to overtime drilling a 3-pointer with 3.3 seconds left in regulation, but he could not convert a driving layup at the end of the overtime that would have won the game for the Penguins. Trailing for the first 3:30 of the overtime period, YSU grabbed an 82-81 lead on a Humphrey layup with 1:23 remaining. UIC's Josh May put the Flames in front 83-82, but YSU answered when Keston Roberts drained a pullup jumper with 44 seconds remaining. The Flames' Olythus Jeffers made a driving bucket with 19 seconds left to set up the final sequence. With 9.5 seconds left the Penguins called timeout to set up a final play. After Derrick Harris took the inbounds pass, he dished to Humphrey who drove the lane and attempted a shot just before the buzzer. Humphrey's shot was just short and on the attempt he ended up lying on the ground. Colin LaForme's final rebound tip attempt came after the buzzer had sounded. The contest featured 19 lead changes and 12 ties, but for the 14th consecutive meeting, the Penguins (3-8 overall and 0-1 in the Horizon League) came up a little short. UIC has now won five of its last six games to improve to 8-5 overall and 1-0 in the league. In the final 10 minutes of the game, neither team led by more than three points. YSU trailed by nine points with 12:48 remaining, but kept chipping away and eventually took the lead 63-62 on a Humphrey basket with 7:19 left. Youngstown State's biggest advantage of the second half was 67-65 after Roberts made two free throws and John Barber scored a bucket. Trailing 76-73 after two Mayo free throws with 19.7 seconds left, YSU worked the ball up the court and called timeout with 9.2 seconds remaining. With 3.3 ticks on the clock Humphrey drilled a hanging 3-pointer to send the game into overtime. Humphrey scored an amazing 20 points in the second half and had 28 at the end of regulation. He was 11-of-23 from the field while going 9-of-10 at the free-throw line. He became the first Penguin to score 30 points in a game since Ryan Patton had 32 at Western Illinois on Jan. 25, 2001. It was the most points scored by a YSU player since Reggie Kemp had 35 against Chicago State on Feb. 19, 1990. Roberts finished with 15 points for the Penguins while John Barber and Domonique Crawford both had 12 points. The Flames had five players score in double figures led by Justin Bowen's 19. The Penguins became the first team to outrebound UIC this year owning a 48-39 margin on the boards. After the disheartening loss, YSU will have to regroup quick as it plays Loyola, which is off to a 9-2 start, on Monday at 2 p.m. |
| Penguins Fall to Siena |
| Thursday, December 29 2005 |
| Courtesy of: |
| Albany, N.Y. For the second straight contest, the Youngstown State men's basketball dug itself a huge second-half hole. And for the second straight outing, the Penguins made a frantic comeback, however this time, they could not get over the top losing to Siena 75-67 on Wednesday night at the Pepsi Arena. Youngstown State (3-7) trailed 47-27 with 16:28 remaining in the contest and was hoping for a reversal of fortune like last week against James Madison when it overcame an 18-point deficit to pull out a win. YSU rallied to within 59-55 with 5:15 remaining on a dunk by Domonique Crawford. But Siena answered back with an old-fashioned three-point play by Antoine Jordan and following a Penguin miss, Siena's Kenny Hasbrouck drilled an open 3-pointer to push the Saints' advantage back up to 10 with 3:44 left. From that point on YSU could not get within seven the rest of the game. For the game the Penguins shot 42.4 percent making 28-of-66 shots while the Saints finished with just a 36.2 percent night making 21-of-58 attempts. YSU also owned a 44-39 lead in rebounding. The big advantage for Siena (5-4) came at the free-throw line. The Saints were 25-of-38 for the night while the Penguins were just 6-of-9. YSU was whistled for 24 fouls while Siena was called for 11. Crawford and Humphrey led Youngstown State with 16 points while Keston Roberts had 12 and Derrick Harris had 10. In 40 minutes of play, Harris had six rebounds, five assists and no turnovers. Hasbrouck had a career-high 23 points while going 13-of-19 from the free-throw line. Kojo Mensah finished with 19 while Jordan had 18 points and 10 rebounds for the Saint. In the first half, the Penguins shot just 29 percent and trailed by its largest margin of the season 37-23. YSU returns to the court on Saturday when it opens Horizon League play against UIC. Tipoff at the UIC Pavilion is set for 3 p.m. Eastern time. |
| Crawford Leads 18-Point Second-Half Comeback Win Over James Madison |
| Thursday, December 22 2005 |
| Courtesy of: |
| Youngstown -- Youngstown State overcame an 18-point second-half deficit behind a 30-8 run and 20 points in the half from Dominique Crawford to defeat James Madison 72-65 Wednesday evening at the Beeghly Center. After JMU scored the first 16 points of the second stanza to go up 47-29 with 15:24 remaining, Crawford started a rally by scoring 14 of YSU's next 18 points to cut the margin to six at the 8:53 mark. Quin Humphrey hit a 3 to knot the score at 55 with 6:29 remaining, and Crawford's jumper with 5:53 remaining put YSU up for good at 57-55. The Dukes got within two with 30 seconds remaining after a Cavell Johnson jumper to make the score 67-65, but Derrick Harris got a loose-ball rebound on a missed free throw and converted on his two charity tosses. JMU missed on an 3-point attempt on its next trip down, and a Humphrey dunk sealed the win. Humphrey finished with a team-high 24 points and added nine rebounds for YSU while Keston Roberts finished with 15 points for the Penguins, who improved to 3-6 on the season. Humphrey finished 12-for-14 from the free throw line and 2-for-3 from behind the arc while Crawford was 8-for-10 from the field. Johnson scored 25 points for the Dukes while Juwann James had 13 points and 12 rebounds. Humphrey scored the game's first point on a free throw, but JMU scored the next nine points to go up 9-1 at the 17:42 mark. YSU cut the lead to one twice before tying the score at 21 on a Roberts free throw with 5:52 remaining. The Dukes upped the margin to six with just over a minute remaining before Humphrey hit two free throws and Jack Liles sank a layup to make the score 31-29 JMU at the break. The Penguins shot 48 percent in the second half and converted on 37 percent for the game. The Dukes shot 45 percent, but YSU made three more 3-pointers and eight more free throws. YSU's bench outscored the JMU bench 27-3 behind Crawford's effort. The 18-point comeback was the most since the Penguins came back from 22 down to defeat Air Force on Dec. 3, 1992. YSU will visit Albany, N.Y., to take on the Siena Saints on Dec. 28 at 8 p.m. |
| Junior Guard Quin Humphrey Named Player of the Week |
| Tuesday, December 20 2005 |
| Courtesy of: |
| Indianapolis -- Junior guard Quin Humphrey (Ellenwood, Ga.) was named the Horizon League Men's Basketball Player of the Week, the league announced on Monday. Humphrey, who leads the league in scoring averaging 17.9 points per game and is second in rebounding averaging 8.8 boards per game, earned the honor for the second time in his career. Humphrey's first time being named the Horizon League's player of the week on Dec. 27, 2004 following a 26-point performance against Loyola. This past week, Humphrey recorded his league-best fourth double-double of the year with a 20-point, 11-rebound effort in an impressive 72-51 win over Duquesne. The 11 rebounds tied his career high while he also added three assists. With his fourth double-double, he became the first Penguin since Desmond Harrison in 2000-01 (four) to have at least four double-doubles in the same year. YSU returns to action on Wednesday when the Penguins play host to James Madison at 7:35 p.m. The contest follows the YSU women's game against Coppin State, which tips at 5:15 p.m. |
| Strong First Half Keys Penguins to 72-51 Victory Over Duquesne |
| Saturday, December 17 2005 |
| Courtesy of: |
| Youngstown -- Junior Keston Roberts scored a game-high 24 points and Quin Humprhey had his fourth double-double of the season as the Youngstown State men's basketball team defeated Duquesne 72-51 Saturday afternoon at Beeghly Center. The Penguins led the entire contest and held a 17-point halftime lead to improve to 2-6 on the season. Humphrey finished with 20 points and 11 rebounds for the Penguins while DeVario Hudson led the 1-6 Dukes with 15 points and nine rebounds. YSU opened up a 15-4 lead at the 13:54 mark in the opening half on a John Barber jumper. Duquesne cut the margin to nine twice, but after a Hudson bucket with 11:59 remaining YSU led by double digits the rest of the way. YSU went up 34-17 with 5:12 remaining when Roberts hit one of his two 3s of the game at the 5:12 mark to cap a 7-0 run. Roberts also put the exclamation point on the first half with a breakaway reverse dunk on a pass from Colin LaForme with 10 seconds remaining to make the score 40-23 at the break. Duquesne got within 12 with 12:45 remaining in the second half thanks to a YSU field goal drought of eight-and-a-half minutes, but Youngstown State hit 16 free throws in the second half to stay ahead. Barber added 13 points off the bench for YSU while Derrick Harris had eight points and six assists. Jack Higgins scored 13 points off the bench for Duquesne and Bryant McAllister finished with 10 points. Youngstown State will play host to James Madison on Wednesday in the second game of a doubleheader with YSU's women's basketball squad. Tipoff against JMU is set for 7:35 p.m. |
| Penguins Come Up Short at St. Bonaventure |
| Monday, December 12 2005 |
| Courtesy of: |
| St. Bonaventure, N.Y. Once again a strong effort on the road by the Youngstown State men's basketball team came up just short as the Penguins suffered a 66-58 loss to St. Bonaventure at the Reilly Center on Saturday night. YSU (1-6) was led by junior guard Quin Humphrey who finished with 17 points. St. Bonaventure (5-2) was led by sophomore forward Michael Lee who finished with a game-high 21 points while freshman guard A.J. Hawkins had 19 points. The Bonnies broke open a 42-40 contest by scoring five straight points and nine of the next 11 to grab a 51-42 lead. From there, YSU could get no closer than five (56-51) the rest of the game. In the first half, YSU shot just 36 percent but trailed 30-24 at the break. Highlighting the Penguins' first-half efforts was Humphrey who finished with eight points. Youngstown State trailed 19-17 at the four-minute mark of the opening half, but the Bonnies were able to make four straight free throws to push the advantage to 23-17. YSU answered with a 3-pointer by Alex Sanchez to pull within 23-20. SBU's Michael Lee put the Bonnies back in front 25-20, but baskets by Humphrey and Derrick Harris pulled the Penguins within 25-24. SBU's Lee scored the final five points of the first half as he converted an old-fashioned three-point play and had a putback that just beat the buzzer giving the Bonnies a six-point halftime edge. St. Bonaventure shot 42.9 percent from the field in the first half, but was 0-of-8 from behind the 3-point line. The Penguins do not return to action until they play host to Duquesne next Saturday at the Beeghly Center. Tipoff for the contest against the Dukes is set for 3:25 p.m. following the YSU women's game against Indiana State which tips at 1:05 p.m. |
| Impressive First Half Not Enough in Loss at EMU |
| Thursday, December 8 2005 |
| Courtesy of: |
| Ypsilanti, Mich. The Youngstown State men's basketball team played an outstanding first half, but some early second half shooting woes allowed Eastern Michigan to come-from-behind to pull out a 77-71 victory over the Penguins on Wednesday night. YSU (1-5) shot 60 percent in the first half (15-of-25) and led by as many as 12 points, but faltered in the second half shooting just 33.3 percent (10-of-30). Eastern Michigan (2-3) took advantage in the second stanza drilling 60.9 percent (14-23) of its shots and at one point leading by as many as 15 points. For the game, junior guard Keston Roberts finished with 25 points on 10-of-16 shooting. Roberts helped fuel the first-half charge scoring 18 points. In the first half, YSU led by 12 on two occasions, with the last 12-point advantage coming at 28-16 with 8:28 remaining on a basket by Roberts. The Eagles were able to chip away at the advantage and get within four at halftime. In the second half, the Penguins made five field goals the first 15 minutes and trailed 59-44 with 6:19 remaining. From that point, YSU went on another frantic comeback as Domonique Crawford (two), Derrick Harris (two) and Mikko Niemi all hit 3-pointers late as the Penguins clawed back within five at 76-71. Quin Humphrey finished with 15 points while Harris finished with 14. For EMU, John Bowler and Carlos Medlock each finished with 21. YSU was able to outrebound the Eagles 29-27. EMU shot 54.2 percent from the field while Youngstown State shot 54.2 percent. The Penguins play the final game of this week's road trip at St. Bonaventure on Saturday. Tipoff for the contest against the Bonnies is set for 7 p.m. |
| Penguins Push Marshall to Limit, Before Falling 73-70 |
| Sunday, December 4 2005 |
| Courtesy of: |
| Huntington, W. Va. A valiant effort by the Youngstown State mens basketball team came up three points short at Marshall on Sunday afternoon as the Penguins suffered a 73-70 setback to the Thundering Herd at the Cam Henderson Center. The big push for Marshall (3-3) came with the game tied at 56. The Thundering Herd scored seven straight points all by Travis Aikens and were able to hold off a frantic comeback attempt by the Penguins (1-4). Marshall went up 68-59 on a basket by Mark Patton before YSU stormed back. Junior Quin Humphrey made a free throw and after a Joe Miles turnover, Keston Roberts drilled a 3-pointer with 44 seconds left to cut the deficit to 68-63. After a Miles miss, Humphrey drove to the basket and was fouled and his two free throws with 31.3 seconds remaining to cut the advantage to 68-65. But Aikens made two free throws with 28.6 seconds left and Chris Ross converted a layup to increase the advantage to 72-65. Humphrey made a layup and Chris Ross made a free throw. Humphrey drilled a 3-pointer at the buzzer for the final margin. Humphrey had his third straight double-double with 18 points and 11 rebounds. John Barber came off the bench to score 16 points while Domonique Crawford and Keston Roberts each finished with 10. To open the game, YSU jumped out to an 11-3 lead by scoring 11 straight points after the Herd opened a 3-0 lead at the outset. Roberts, Humphrey and Harris all drilled 3-pointers as Humphrey added a two. Marshall eventually tied the game at 26 and from that point on, neither team had a lead of more than four for the rest of the first half. The Thundering Herd led 40-36 just before the half, but a Jack Liles basket with one second left trimmed the deficit to two. The Penguins continue a busy week when they play at Eastern Michigan on Wednesday night. Tipoff for the contest against the Eagles is set for 8:30 p.m. |
| Humphrey's 29 Offset By Big Kent State Comeback |
| Thursday, December 1 2005 |
| Courtesy of: |
| Youngstown -- For the second consecutive game the Youngstown State men's basketball team had a big second-half lead, but once again the Penguins could not hold on suffering a 77-69 loss to Kent State at the Beeghly Center on Wednesday night. Junior Quin Humphrey scored a career-high 29 points, but the Golden Flashes (3-2) overcame a 16-point second half deficit to oust Youngstown State (1-3). In the opening minutes of the second half, Kent State cut a 31-22 YSU halftime advantage down to four at the 16:11 mark. From that point, the Penguins went on a 14-2 run to build the advantage to 47-31 with 12:19 left in the game. However, Kent State was able to rally quickly as Kevin Warzynski fueled the comeback by making consecutive 3-pointers. Trailing 47-37, KSU guard Jay Youngblood scored the next six points to pull the Golden Flashes within 47-43. Keston Roberts pushed the lead back up to six points, but Kent State followed with a Nate Gerwig basket, a two Youngblood 3-pointers to pull ahead 51-49. YSU tied the game at 51 on two Humphrey free throws, but the Golden Flashes scored never trailed after that point. In the second half, Kent State outscored the Guins 54-38. Humphrey had a phenomenal night going 10-of-13 from the field and 9-of-10 from the free-throw line. He grabbed 10 rebounds to finish with his second straight double-double and third of his career. Roberts was the only other Penguin to reach double figures finishing with 13. Youngblood had a game-high 21 points while Warzynski and DeAndre Haynes had 15 points and Omni Smith added 13. YSU shot 46.3 percent from the field (25-of-54) and was solid from the line making 15-of-17 attempts. KSU shot 42.2 percent (27-of-64), but was 10-of-19 from 3-point range. YSU won the battle of the boards 37-34. The Penguins begin a three-game road trip on Sunday when they play at Marshall. Tipoff for the contest against the Thundering Herd is set for 2 p.m. |