Archive for the ‘YSU Basketball’ Category

Youngstown State’s Kenya Middlebrooks made two free throws with 9.8 seconds remaining to lift the Penguins to a 57-56, come-from-behind win at Bucknell on Wednesday evening at Sojka Pavilion.

The Penguins trailed by 17 early in the second half and were down 56-48 with two minutes left. Brandi Brown‘s three-point play cut the margin to five, and, after a Bucknell turnover on a five-second violation, another three-point play by Middlebrooks made the score 56-54 with 1:53 left.

Brown went 1-for-2 from the line with 14.4 seconds left, and Tieara Jones grabbed the offensive rebound to keep possession. Middlebrooks was fouled on a jumper, and she sank both free throws to give YSU its first lead since the score was 13-12 10 minutes into the game. Bucknell’s Amy Zehner missed a 12-foot jumper from the right side as time expired.

Middlebrooks scored all 10 of her points in the second half, and Brown scored 12 on an off night shooting. Zehner, an impressive freshman, led all scorers with 25 points.  Youngstown State is now 2-1 on the season and has won back-to-back non-conference games on the road for the first time since November 2004.

Up 30-19 at halftime, Bucknell scored eight of the first 10 points of the second period to take a 38-21 lead with 16:28 left. YSU went on an 11-1 run to cut the margin to 39-32 with 12:01 remaining, and five points in 20 seconds by Kelsea Fickieson got the Penguins within five with 6:26 to go.

Bucknell scored the next five points to go back up by 10, and a Zehner jumper at the 3:29 mark put the Bison up 56-46. That accounted for their final points of the night.  Heidi Schlegel‘s lay-up after an offensive rebound started the run with 3:15 left, and the three-point plays by Brown and Middlebrooks came just over a minute later.

YSU was 7-for-32 for 21.9 percent and had two field goals in the final 12 minutes. That included going 5-for-18 from inside 10 feet. Bucknell countered by shooting 48.1 percent, making 13-of-27 from the field.

YSU shot just 31.3 percent but hit three more treys than Bucknell and outscored the Bison by eight from the free-throw line. Bucknell shot 51 percent in a losing effort, largely because of being outscored 28-8 off turnovers. Bucknell had 25 turnovers to YSU’s 14, and the Penguins turned the ball over just three times in the second half.

Youngstown State will host American in its Beeghly Center opener on Monday at 7:05 p.m.

** Story courtesy of YSUSports.com

History lesson. The great Industrial Revolution of America was built on the theory that interchangeable parts could be used to mass assemble.  Tuesday night at Beeghly Center, Jerry Slocum did exactly that, showed a wide array of talent, interchangeable parts.  The Penguins looked pretty good in defeating Notre Dame of Ohio 80-62 in the 2011 home opener.  A long-standing school record of 14 three pointers in a game was tied as the Penguins had the long shots falling to the clip of 66.7% in the first half.

“It was a tale of two halves”, remarked Slocum.  “In the first half, everything went in, and in the second half, nothing would go in.  The first half was a clinic of sharing the ball though.”

The Penguins did a tremendous job of scoring off of turnovers in the first half.  The Falcons committed ten first half turnover that led to 13 points for Youngstown State.  Conversely, YSU only had two first half turnovers and the Falcons did not get a point off of either turnover.  Balance was the norm for Slocum’s team in the first half.  Kendrick Perry had 16 points, was 3-3 on three-pointers, got five assists, was 5-7 from the line, and had a rebound.  Senior Ashen Ward had 14, and Blake Allen chipped in 12 points as YSU coasted to a 51-31 lead at the break.

The second half was much like the first in the sense that Slocum used his bench frequently.  It was a good opportunity to get some of the bench players quality minutes to ready them for tougher tests.  With 15:28 left in the game, Notre Dame actually cut the lead to 51-36, but the Penguins regained composure quickly and stretched their lead to 66-49 with 8:40 left in the game.

The win gets the Penguins off to a 2-0 start for the second straight season.  The win also elevates Slocum to sole possession of fourth place on the all-time Penguins Coaching wins list with 59.  He had been previously tied with John Robic, and now has 640 coaching victories in his 37th season.  Another landmark broken with the victory was Ashen Ward getting his 100th career three-pointer in the first half.

“I didn’t know that”, said Ward of his landmark trey.  “I always considered myself a shooter, now it is verified.”

Perry (below) had the best all-around game for YSU (2-0).  The sophomore poured in 18 points, had five assists, and seemed to be everywhere all night.  Ward finished the game with 17 points and Allen contributed with 14 more.  Eric Dummermuth paced the Falcons with 20 points and ten boards.

With 2:03 left in the game, Shawn Amiker, the last player to enter the game for the Penguins, hit a baseline runner while being fouled.  It was proof that interchangeable parts seem very much in order on Jerry Slocum’s assembly line.  The Penguins go back to work at home on Friday, welcoming U-C Riverside to town.

“We want to get the bench more involved earlier in games,” said Slocum.  “We have to develop those younger guys and it is better to get them in early and let the more experienced veteran players there in the second half.  We also have to play better at home.  At Samford, we played a full 40 minutes, it is much harder to play at home.  It’s a process and we have to keep growing.”

The Youngstown State women’s basketball team had its highest offensive output since the 2007-08 season and held off a late charge in a 91-81 at IPFW on Sunday afternoon at the Gates Sports Complex.

Brandi Brown scored 18 of her 22 points in the second half, and Kenya Middlebrooks had 17 of her 21 in the first half for YSU, which improved to 1-1 for the season. Heidi Schlegel added 17 points, which shot 51.8 percent from the field.  YSU last scored in the nineties when it had 92 points at Valparaiso on Jan. 31, 2008.

The Penguins led by as many as 24 points with 10-and-a-half minutes remaining, but IPFW made a late run to make the final score close. Although YSU led by double digits the entire second half, a jumper by IPFW’s Anne Boese cut the score to 73-61 with 5:46 to play. Boese then hit a trey with 2:55 left to make the score 82-72.  The Mastodons didn’t hit another field goal until the 1:09 mark, and YSU had upped its lead back to 13 by then.

Boese, who scored 20 points in the opener at Cincinnati on Friday, didn’t score her first points today until there was 18:45 left. She finished with 12 points, and Erin Murphy led the Mastodons with 21. IPFW was 23-for-26 from the free-throw line.

YSU led by 17 early in the second half, but two Hillary Moore free throws made the score 48-37 with 17:53remaining. The Penguins then went on a 19-6 run, capped by a Brown lay-up with 12:04 to play, to go up by 24.

Youngstown State built a 44-29 halftime lead behind 17-first half points from Middlebrooks. The junior guard was 6-for-9 from the field, including 4-for-6 from beyond the arc. She had nine points in less than a four-minute span as YSU went on a 10-0 run to gain separation.

IPFW’s last lead came when Rachel Mauk hit a layup to put the Mastodons up 7-4. Monica Touvelle hit a three to tie the score to spark a 7-0 run, and YSU never trailed again. A Middlebrooks try at the 9:11 mark capped a 10-0 run that gave YSU a 23-12 lead.

Moore’s free throw with 4:33 left made the score 32-23, but Liz Hornberger hit a triple on YSU’s next possession to push the score to 35-23. The margin was never single digits again.

Eleven of IPFW’s 29 points in the first half came from the free-throw line.

Five different Penguins shot better than 50 percent, and nine different Guins had at least one assist. Middlebrooks added five steals.

Youngstown State will wrap up its season-opening three-game road swing at Bucknell on Wednesday. Tipoff inLewisburg, Pa. is set for 7 p.m., and the game will be carried live on 570 WKBN.

Sophomore Kendrick Perry scored a career-high 28 points and led three other Penguins scoring in double figures to lead the Youngstown State men’s basketball team to a 76-69 victory over Samford (0-1) at the Pete Hanna Center on Saturday evening.

Junior Damian Eargle scored 17 points with eight rebounds and six blocks while junior Blake Allen had 12 points and senior Ashen Ward has 11 points and eight rebounds.

With the victory, the Penguins (1-0) won a road season opener for the first time since 2000.  The Guins  also turned in a strong second-half defensive effort limiting the Bulldogs to just 37.5 percent shooting from the floor, forcing eight turnovers and grabbing 14 defensive rebounds along with five blocks by Eargle.

For the game, the Guins forced 18 turnovers that lead to 22 points.  The Guins and Bulldogs played through 12 lead changes and seven ties until the Guins started to break away.

Tied at 49 with 8:35 left in the game, layups by Ward and sophomore Josh Chojnacki and another layup by Ward gave the Guins a 55-49 lead with 6:08 to go in the game.

The Guins built its largest lead at 12, 64-52, after a three-point play by Perry, but Samford did not go away.  The Bulldogs chipped the Guins lead down to five, 71-66, after a Raijon Kelly 3-pointer with 32 seconds left.  Two free throws by Allen and a steal and dunk by Perry pushed the lead back to nine, 75-66, with 16 seconds left to seal the game.

For the game, YSU shot 45 percent from the field and 40 percent from 3-point range. The Guins also outscored the Bulldogs 26-16 in the paint.

The Youngstown State women’s basketball team played well enough defensively but shot just 19.6 percent in a 69-37 loss at West Virginia in the 2011-12 season opener on Friday at the WVU Coliseum.

The Penguins trailed 26-15 at halftime because of a strong defensive effort that held the Mountaineers to 30-percent shooting. WVU shot 59.3 percent in the second half in outscoring the Guins 43-22 in the final 20 minutes.

WVU, which held a big size advantage, posted 12 blocks. Sophomore guard Taylor Palmer had 33 points on 12-of-23 shooting, including 8-for-16 from beyond the arc. The rest of the Mountaineers combined to go 0-for-10 from 3-point range.

Brandi Brown had 12 points and eight rebounds for Youngstown State but was just 3-for-15 from the field. Monica Touvelle, Heidi Schlegel and Melissa Thompson had five points apiece.

YSU dug itself a 13-0 hole until Touvelle’s 3-pointer with 12:50 remaining broke the scoreless stretch. WVU led by double digits until Macey Nortey scored on YSU’s first possession of the second half. That made the score 26-17, but WVU scored the next 10 points and held the Penguins scoreless until the 15:45 mark.

Youngstown State will stay in Morgantown tonight before heading to Fort Wayne, Ind., to play IPFW on Sunday.

The same people who vote on where Youngstown State would finish in the Horizon League this season, also vote for who the best player in the conference is.  Brandi Brown was named the preseason Horizon League Player of The Year, but her team was picked, by the same people, to finish tenth out of ten teams.  Second year coach, Bob Boldon, enters this season optimistic that his team is better for the opening tip this season than they were a year ago.  Down the stretch, the Lady Penguins were hot, and nobody wanted to play them because they came around a corner few thought they could.  The strong finish included three home wins and a buzzer loss in the opening round of the Horizon League Tournament.

This just in – Brandi Brown is really good.  The thing that the Penguins need is consistency from her supporting cast to be successful.  Brown became the first scoring leader in conference history to not be voted onto the league’s first team, thus the Penguins will enter this season with sizeable chips on their shoulders.  Is it a case of as Brown goes, so do the Penguins?

“Yes, that is true”, remarked Boldon. “Last year, Brandi shot the ball 150 to 200 times more than anybody else.  I don’t know if it will be that drastic this year, but she is going to shoot the ball more than anyone else is, Brandi is a really good player.  We need to more consistently provide her help.  It seems that last year when a couple of other players stepped up and had good games, we won.  Brandi is still going to take the last shot, everything will run through her. We still need to improve on scoring when she doesn’t have the ball. She will be a big part of everything until she graduates.”

“We all felt responsible for Brandi not being on the first team last year simply because we underachieved as a team,” Boldon said. “(Being picked to finish 10th) hurt some people’s feelings because they felt like they turned the corner a little bit,” Boldon said. “They thought we should have gotten some more respect from the voters. Whatever fuels us is good for me. There were some people who felt like we weren’t ‘that team’ anymore.”

The Penguins lost Boki Dimitrov to graduation.  Makala Gasparek and Maryum Jenkins will not be playing this year either.  Enter a new group of players, to be custom-molded by Boldon and tidy up a slick spread-motion system. Newcomers Kelsea Fickiesen and Ashley Lawson add some depth at the guard positions.  Junior transfer Devan Matkin further deepens the guard pool.  Second-year guard Melissa Thompson should see more time this season.

Familiar faces to continue the march forward include Kenya Middlebrooks and Liz Hornberger.  Middlebrooks, a senior, and Hornberger, a sophomore, both ranked in the league’s top-10 in three point shooting percentage.   Another sophomore, Monica Touvelle, returns with a wealth of experience, making appearances in all 30 games last season.  Heidi Schlegel could really be a big player for Boldon.  The redshirt freshman played in the first seven games before injuring her foot and missing the remainder of the 2010-11 campaign.

Tiera Jones and Macey Nortey, both seniors, round out Boldon’s active roster.  Jones really came on last year and was very productive when she could stay out of foul trouble.  Nortey is a ball of energy and a vocal presence with a do-what-it-takes attitude.  They should both play a role in the fortunes of this year’s campaign.

“We want to continue to improve on what we did last year”, said Boldon. “The new people we brought in are good shooters and we spent time this offseason working with the players who are returning, and as a result, they have become better shooters as well.  It is a collective movement.”

“There are still a multitude of things that we can teach the players”, said Boldon.  “However, it has been easier this season because the system base was already installed, so we are at a higher starting point.  Our returning players do not know it all, but the turnaround time with them will be quicker this season.  It is more about refreshing them than starting from scratch.”

Boldon’s team opens the season on Friday night at West Virginia.  They then travel to IPFW and Bucknell before returning home for the 2011 home opener against American University on November 21.  This team will not compete for an outright championship this season, however, I would be surprised if they did not win at least 13 games. This year will be more about being competitive and winning games they should win.  With the lack of respect shown by that grand voting panel of Horizon League Wizardry, that means they will finish about 2-28…  I say 14-16.  Hopefully better.

Boldon outlined his short and long-term goals.

“Long term, you start to think about the Horizon League Tournament.  You want to try to get yourself into a favorable position, out of that seven, eight, nine, or ten slot.  We would love to be in a position to host a home game in the tournament.  Short term, we failed to build off of our successes when we had them last year.  We had a little success and got so happy with ourselves that we did not get better.”

Season tickets for the 2011-12 Youngstown State men’s and women’s basketball season are on sale now through Monday, Nov. 14, the YSU Athletics Ticket Office announced.

Fans can purchase reserved-seat season tickets through Penguin Club Membership at $140 or through the Penguin Package of $160, which includes all men’s and women’s games.  The ticket office also announced individual game tickets will go on sale Tuesday, Nov. 1.

Prices for individual reserved seats are $12 prior to game day and $14 on game day. General admission individual ticket prices are $8 prior to game day and $10 on game day.

Groups of 20 or more can purchase general admission tickets for $4 for men’s basketball and $3 for women’s basketball.

Faculty and staff may purchase regular-season game tickets at half price with a valid Youngstown State University Faculty/Staff ID card. Discounted tickets must be purchased prior to game day.

YSU students can obtain a complimentary ticket with a valid YSU student ID.

Two-time defending national finalist Butler University was voted the preseason favorite to capture the 2011-12 Horizon League men’s basketball championship, marking the third straight season the Bulldogs were tabbed in the top spot in voting by the League’s coaches, media and sports information directors.  Youngstown State was picked seventh.

Each of the top four teams in the balloting received at least one first-place vote, with Cleveland State edgingMilwaukee for third in the poll. Valparaiso took fifth, just ahead of Green Bay. In seventh, Youngstown State matched its highest position in the poll since joining the Horizon League, while Wright State and Loyola were separated by 12 points in eighth and ninth, respectively. UIC rounded out the poll.

No respect.

Coach Jerry Slocum seems unbothered by the preseason ranking and practices have been going well.  The team thrives on the selection, they can’t wait for the season to start.  Actions speak louder than words and Youngstown is in for a treat this season when they will get a glimpse of perhaps one of their best teams to hit the floor.

“Everyone grew up shooting and playing with the ball”, said Slocum.  “It is a sign of maturity when a whole team steps up and says that they went to get better on defense.  I think the learning curve at the defensive end of the floor is a significant change.  We are stronger in the weight room, more experienced, and a little tougher mentally.”

“We are focusing on getting stops, I think we will score points, which has not always been the case in the past.”

The Youngstown State women’s basketball team was recently picked to finish last in their conference.  In an oxymoron-type move, Brandi Brown was voted Horizon League Preseason Player of The Year.  Do the people that vote fail to realize that the best player, of their choosing, is on the team they picked to finish last?

If I were Bob Boldon, second year head coach, I would relish being picked last.  It opens the door for a lot of putting the stick in the mud at season’s end.  Granted, this years women’s team may not be cutting down any nets, but they will win at least 12 games.  Even if they only win ten and my prediction is wrong, it is marked improvement from where the program was when Boldon and staff came to town.

Warning Horizon League readers outside of the Youngstown area… Take this team lightly and you will lose to them this year.  Boki Dimitrov is gone, but all of the others are back, and then some.  I will do a full women’s basketball preview piece this weekend, but for now, write my fearless prediction of 12 wins down somewhere, if you lose it, I will remind you in February.

Fresh off its Sweet 16 run last season, Green Bay was chosen as the preseason favorite in the team poll. The Phoenix received 29 out of 30 first-place votes for 299 points, and Cleveland State was a distant second with 238 points. Wright State, Butler, UIC and Milwaukee all finished within 35 points for the third through sixth spots. Detroit was picked to finish seventh by a sizeable margin, and Loyola, Valparaiso and Youngstown State rounded out the bottom three. The Penguins defeated Valpo in both meetings last season and came within a bucket of forcing overtime at Loyola in the opening round of the Horizon League Tournament.

Head coaches, sports information directors and select media members voted in the poll.

The last Penguin to earn conference player-of-the-year honors was Brianne Kenneally in 1999-2000 while YSU was competing in the Mid-Continent Conference. YSU’s last first-team all-league performer was Jen Perugini in 2004-05.

Youngstown State begins the 2011-12 season at West Virginia on Nov. 11 at 6:30 p.m.

2011-12 Preseason Poll

(First Place Votes)

1. Green Bay (29) – 299
2. Cleveland State – 238
3. Wright State – 212
4. Butler – 197
5. UIC – 186
6. Milwaukee – 177
7. Detroit (1) – 141
8. Loyola – 88
9. Valparaiso – 64
10. Youngstown State – 48

Player of the Year: Brandi Brown, Youngstown State

All-League Team

First Team
Brandi Brown, F, Youngstown State
Julie Wojta, G/F, Green Bay
Molly Fox, F, Wright State
Shalonda Winton, F, Cleveland State
Jasmine Bailey, G/F, UIC

Second Team

Angela Rodriguez, G, Milwaukee
Yar Shayok, F, Detroit
Shamiea Green, G, UIC
Monica Albano, G, Loyola
Betsy Adams, G, Valparaiso

Youngstown State junior forward Brandi Brown has been selected as the Horizon League Preseason Player of the Year in the conferences 2011-12 preseason poll that was released Wednesday.

Brown, a second-team all-conference pick last season as the league’s top scorer, edged Green Bay senior Julie Wojta by one point for the preseason player-of-the-year nod. Brown finished with 260 points, and Wojta and Wright State’s Molly Fox were the only other two players to finish with at least 140 points. All five First-Team All-Horizon League members last season were seniors.

Brown (Pomona, Calif.) scored 597 points in 30 games last year for a league-leading 19.9 points per game. She ranked fourth in rebounding with 9.2 per game and tied for the league lead with 13 double-doubles. Additionally, her .472 field-goal percentage ranked seventh. Brown was even better in league play, averaging 22.6 points and 9.6 rebounds while shooting 51.4 percent from the field.

On the national level, Brown ranked 15th in scoring and 49th in rebounding. She was one of only 10 players in the country to rank in the top 50 in both categories.

Brown, Wojta and Fox were joined by Cleveland State’s Shalonda Winton and UIC’s Jasmine Bailey on the first team. Second-team members were Angela Rodriguez (Milwaukee), Yar Shayok (Detroit), Shamiea Green (UIC), Monica Albano (Loyola), and Betsy Adams (Valparaiso).

Brown was snubbed for Horizon League Newcomer of The Year two seasons ago when Detroit’s Shayok, a good player, and second team preseason pick this season, was handed the hardware.  Last season, Brown led the conference in almost every statistic but was somehow kept off of the First-Team in another bad vote or however their procedure works.

Congratulations Brandi!