| Liles' Double-Double Paves Way For 81-60 Win Over Lock Haven |
| Tuesday, December 30 2008 |
| Courtesy of: |
| Youngstown -- Senior forward Jack Liles scored 18 points and grabbed 13 rebounds to lead four Penguins in double figures as the Youngstown State men's basketball team picked up an 81-60 victory over Lock Haven on Monday night at the Beeghly Center. Liles and the Penguins (3-8) used a strong first-half to build a 43-31 lead. In the opening stanza, Liles scored 14 points and grabbed 10 boards to help give the Guins build their 12-point lead. YSU opened the second half strong scoring 16 of the first 22 points. The Guins' biggest advantage of the contest was 24, the first of which was 57-33 at the 13:55 mark. YSU also led by 24 five other times in the final half and the closest the Bald Eagles could get was 76-60 on a 3-pointer by Billy Arre with 1:36 left in the game. Arre scored a game-high 25 points to pace three Bald Eagles in double figures. For the game, the Penguins shot 45.2 percent (33-of-73) for the contest while Lock Haven hit at a 44.4 percent (24-of-54) clip. The Guins had a huge advantage in second-chance points outscoring the Bald Eagles (2-6) 32-5. For the contest, YSU grabbed 21 offensive boards and had 50 total rebounds. LHU had only six offensive caroms and 26 total boards. Besides Liles, Vytas Sulskis had 16 points, Kelvin Bright added 15 and De'Andre Mays poured in 13 off the bench. Sirlester Martin finished with eight point and eight rebounds. Following a back-and-forth battle with four ties and four lead changes in the opening eight minutes of the game, Mays put the Penguins on top for good at 15-14 when he hit a jumper with 12:21 left in the half. Up by two points with 8:44 left in the first-half, the Penguins used a 14-4 run over the next four minutes and seven seconds to go up by 12 and extend their lead to 39-27. As a team the Penguins shot 48.6 percent in the first half, making 18 of 37 shots. Lock Haven shot 42.9 percent from the field in the first half, making 12 of their 28 shots. The Penguins will get back into Horizon League play when they travel to Detroit on Thursday. Tipoff at Calihan Hall is set for 1 p.m. |
| Charlotte beats Youngstown State 100-80 |
| Sunday, December 21 2008 |
| Courtesy of: |
| CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP)—DiJuan Harris scored 20 points and Charlotte had five other players in double figures to beat Youngstown State 100-80 on Sunday. RaShan Coleman added 16 points and Charlie Coley III had 13 points and 13 rebounds for the 49ers (4-6), who led by as many as 28 points in their third consecutive win. Phil Jones had 13 points and Lamont Mack and Ian Andersen scored 11 each for Charlotte, which broke the 100-point mark in a game for the first time in four seasons. Vytas Sulskis hit five 3-pointers and scored 20 points for the Penguins (2-8), who lost for the sixth time in their last seven games. Kelvin Bright had 16 points and Sirlester Martin 14. Charlotte shot 67.9 percent from the field in the first half (19 of 28) to take command, then extended its lead to 28 points twice in the second. |
| Liles Nets Double-Double, Penguins Hold Off High Point For 64-61 Win |
| Saturday, December 20 2008 |
| Courtesy of: |
| High Point, N.C. -- Senior Jack Liles recorded his second double-double of the season with 14 points and 13 rebounds and junior Kelvin Bright scored 12 of his 14 points in the second half to lead the Youngstown State basketball team to a 64-61 win over High Point at the Millis Athletic Center. Junior DeAndre Mays also reached double figures with 13 points, seven rebounds, five assists and four steals. The Penguins, who overcame a .356 field-goal percentage and 17 High Point blocked shots, improve to 2-7 overall while High Point falls to 4-7. The Penguins and Panthers battled through nine ties and 10 lead changes through the first 32 minutes of the game before the Penguins started to assert themselves. With the game tied at 49-49, senior Zack Rebillot's lay up at the 7:12 mark gave the Penguins the lead for good and sparked an 11-0 run that put the Guins up 60-49 with 3:53 left. A jumper by Liles, a lay up and 3-pointer by Bright and another lay up by Liles keyed the Guins' run. High Point, though, was not done and scored the next six points to cut the deficit to five, 60-55, with 1:28 left. After a Mays lay up cushion the YSU lead back to seven, 62-55, High Point's David Campbell drilled a 3-pointer with 51 seconds left brought the Panthers within four, 62-58. Mays made two free throws to extend the YSU edge back to six, 64-58, with 27 second remaining but Campbell nailed another 3-pointer to bring the Panthers within three, 64-61. After Bright missed two free throws, High Point's Nick Barbour, who scored a game-high 21 points, missed a potential game-tying 3-pointer as time expired. The Guins trailed by six, 20-14, midway through the first half but used a 15-4 run to take a 29-24 lead with 2:18 before the intermission. A lay up by Sulskis and a jumper by Sirlester Martin cut the Panther lead to 20-18 but Barbour countered with a jumper to put High Point back up four, 22-18, with 7:52 left. Martin hit back-to-back jumpers and a jumper Liles gave the Penguins a 24-22 edge before Steadman Short's lay up knotted the game at 24-24 with 4:37 remaining. A free throw by Sulskis and two jumpers by Dallas Blocker extended the Penguins' advantage to five, 29-24, with just more than two minutes left. High Point, however, scored seven of the next nine points, including a buzzer-beating 3-pointer by Barbour that tied the game at 31-31 at the half. YSU out-rebounded the Panthers, 48-44, and tallied 22 boards on the offensive glass. The Penguins close out their three-game road swing at Charlotte, Sunday, Dec. 21. Tipoff is slated for 2 p.m. at Halton Arena. The game will be broadcast on 106.1 WBBG-FM due to broadcast conflicts with the Cleveland Browns and Pittsburgh Steelers. |
| Kent State Uses Big Second-Half Spurt to Down Penguins |
| Tuesday, December 16 2008 |
| Courtesy of: |
| Kent, Ohio -- The Youngstown State men's basketball team led Kent State by five early in the second half, but Kent State scored 16 consecutive points to seize control of the game and hand the Penguins a 82-74 defeat on Monday night at the M.A.C. Center. YSU (1-7) led 40-35 after a Jack Liles basket and a three-point play by Vytas Sulskis before the Golden Flashes reeled of the next 16 points as YSU missed five shots and committed seven turnovers in just over a five-minute span. Kent State went on to a 16-0 run over the course of the next 4:54 to put the Golden Flashes up 51-40. Kelvin Bright finally ended the Kent State streak when he hit a two-point jumper with 12:29 left, making the score 51-42. Overall, KSU scored 24 of the next 26 points to lead 59-42 with 9:31 left in the contest. YSU put some pressure on in the final five minutes making an impressive run of its own. Trailing 69-48 at the 6:33 mark, the Penguins cut the deficit to 74-63 with 2:36 left. Vance Cooksey drew a foul from Kent State's Jordan Mincy who was also called for a technical with 2:36 remaining. Cooksey made one of four free-throw attempts to get within 10 points, but Kent State converted two straight field goals, the first by Anthony Simpson, to push the advantage back to 14. Cooksey led the Guins with a season-high 22 points while Bright added 21 points. Leading the way for Kent State was Al Fisher who scored 20 points. The Penguins shot 43.5 percent for the game and 45.5 percent in the second half. Kent State finished the game 51.5 percent from the field, shooting 59.6 percent in the second half. The first half was a back-and-forth battle as both teams combined for a total of five lead changes and the game was tied six times. Youngstown State won the rebounding battle by a total 38-34 and also had three more assist than the Golden Flashes. The Penguins took a slim two-point lead at the half as a Kelvin Bright finger rolled a breakaway layup in just before the first-half buzzer off of a Dan Boudler steal and pass to give the Penguins a 31-29 lead. Early in the first with Youngstown State up 5-2 with 16:35 left in the half, the Golden Flashes scored the next eight points over a span of 2:28 to take a 10-5 lead. The five-point margin was the largest lead of the half for Kent State. The Penguins responded with a 13-2 run over the next 4:55 to go on top by a score of 18-12 with 9:12 left in the half. During the spurt, guard Vance Cookey scored eight points. That six-point bulge was the largest in the half for either team. Fisher had 10 points to lead KSU while Bryant scored nine to pace the Guins. The Penguins shot 41.9 percent from the field in the first half (13-of-31), including 14 bench points. Kent State scored 24 of their 29 first-half point in the paint, posting a 44.8 field goal percentage (13-of-29). The Golden Flashes were held without a 3-point field goal and missed four free throws. The Guins forced Kent State into 10 turnovers, six of which were credited as steals. The Penguins remain on the road playing at High Point on Friday night. Tipoff for YSU's first-ever contest against the Panthers is set for 7 p.m. and will be carried live in Youngstown on 570 WKBN. |
| Howard and Mack push Butler past YSU, 79-71 |
| Saturday, December 6 2008 |
| Courtesy of: |
| YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (AP)—Matt Howard scored 23 points and Shelvin Mack added 22 as Butler stayed unbeaten with a 79-71 victory over Youngstown State on Saturday night. The Bulldogs (7-0, 2-0 Horizon League) hit 18 of 21 free throws in the second half to make a 39-28 halftime lead stand. Kelvin Bright had 27 points and Sirlester Martin 12 for the Penguins (1-6, 0-2). Youngstown State led by four points midway through the first half before Butler took control. The Bulldogs led by as many as 19 points in the second half. Howard also had nine rebounds and hit all but two of his 15 foul shots. |
| Penguins Go Cold In Second Half, Fall 68-57 to Valpo |
| Friday, December 5 2008 |
| Courtesy of: |
| Youngstown -- The Youngstown State men's basketball team saw a red-hot start from floor turn to an ice cold final 25 minutes as it fell 68-57 to Valparaiso on Thursday in the Penguins' Horizon League opener. The Penguins started 11-for-22 and 8-for-10 from behind the 3-point arc in the first 15 minutes, but they made just two of their next 19 shots and missed 13 straight treys. YSU led by as many as 14 in the first half before Valpo made its comeback. YSU falls to 1-5 overall and 0-1 in the Horizon League while Valparaiso snapped a four-game losing streak to improve to 3-4 overall and 1-1 in league play. Junior Kelvin Bright scored a team-high 13 points while junior Sirlester Martin picked up his second double-double of the season with 11 points and 11 rebounds. Valparaiso's Urule Igbavboa scored a game-high 27 points on 9-of-15 shooting from the floor and 9-of-11 from the charity stripe and grabbed nine points. The Penguins led by as many as 14, 33-19, in the first half before Valpo closed out the half on a 13-2 run to get within 35-32 at the break. YSU started 8-for-10 from 3-point range before missing the mark on their final three. Four of YSU's starters ran into foul trouble with two infractions in the first half, and leading scorer Vytas Sulskis was limited to five minutes. The Crusaders scored the first four points of the game and led 7-2 after Howard Little's trey with 17:09 remaining. YSU then went on a 15-2 run to seize a 17-9 advantage on back-to-back 3-pointers by Ashen Ward and Tom Parks. Valpo scored six straight to close the deficit to 17-15 with 8:41 remaining, but YSU answered with a 14-2 run over the next 3:41 and claimed a 31-17 advantage on Sirlester Martin's bucket at the five-minute mark. From that point, Valpo held the Penguins without a field goal until the 16:46 mark in the second period as it closed the half on a 15-4 run. YSU committed eight turnovers over the stretch. Bright scored 13 points in the first half to lead all scorers while Igbavboa had 12 to lead Valpo. Valpo scored the first four points of the second half to take its first lead in 17 minutes when Igbavboa made two free throws to make the score 36-35. The lead bounced back-and-forth four times until Logan Jones' layup gave the Crusaders a 40-39 lead that they would not relinquish. Valpo upped it lead to 51-43 with 8:38 remaining to go up eight, but YSU scored three straight to get within five with 7:13 remaining. Valpo scored the next four points and later scored nine straight to increase a seven-point margin to 16 with 1:59 remaining. The Crusaders led 68-51 before YSU made two 3-pointers in the final 20 seconds. The Penguins shot just 26.9 percent in the second half and connected on just 55 percent (11-of-20) of their free-throw attempts for the game YSU hosts Butler, Saturday, Dec. 6, at 7:05 p.m. at the Beeghly Center |