The Town Crier

[PointGuard]

HORIZON LEAGUE TOURNAMENT RESULTS:

Horizon League Tourney Play-in Games:
UIC-73, Oakland-71
Detroit-74, Milwaukee-69

Horizon League Tourney Round One:
Wisconsin-Green Bay (#1 seed)-91, Detroit (#8 seed)-65
Valparaiso (#2 seed)-107, UIC (#7 seed)-105 (3 OT)
Wright St. (#3 seed)-72, Youngstown St. (#6 seed)-63
Cleveland St. (#5 seed)-82, Northern Kentucky (#4 seed)-67

Youngstown State tried to overcome the refs calling 12 fouls on them as compared to just 5 against Wright State in the first half. The two teams played nearly equally but free throws made the difference to give Wright State a 34-30 halftime lead. Both Jamal Grady for the Penguins and John Blanchard for the Raiders scored 17 points in the half.
The second half was nearly a duplication of the first. Free throws plus 26 points from the Raiders’ SG John Blanchard proved to be too much for the Penguins to overcome. Youngstown State went down to a 72-63 defeat. Jamal Grady scored 27 points and Josh Jones scored 10 plus pulled down 8 rebounds.

Horizon League Tourney Round Semi-Finals:
Wisconsin-Green Bay (#1 seed)-68, Cleveland St. (#5 seed)-66
Wright St. (#3 seed)-68, Valparaiso (#2 seed)-60

Horizon League Tourney Championship:
Wisconsin-Green Bay (#1 seed)-76, Wright St. (#3 seed)-65

[frankinho]

Nice read PG. Just a suggestion but would make it even more interesting with some pictures added here or there where it makes sense to spice it up a bit

[PointGuard]

Thanks! Good point!

[PointGuard]

Youngstown State Team Statistics:

Season Record: 16-14
League Record: 9-9
PPG: Penguins-70.8; Opponents-72.1
APG: Penguins-15.3; Opponents-16.7
RPG: Penguins-34.0; Opponents-31.8
SPG: Penguins-7.5; Opponents-6.9
BPG: Penguins-6.2; Opponents-5.8
TO: Penguins-15.2; Opponents-15.1

Youngstown State Player Statistics:

PPG: Puzey-11.6; Grady-11.3; Surpin-11.1; Jones-10.0; Lostetter-6.9; Delzell-6.7; Toole-4.4; Harrington-4.4; Braswell-4.2; Martin-2.3; Holt-1.6; Knight-1.4; Anderson-1.1
RPG: Puzey-5.6; Delzell-4.8; Grady-4.6; Toole-4.4; Jones-3.6; Surpin-3.6; Braswell-2.8; Harrington-2.3; Martin-1.8; Lostetter-1.6; Anderson-0.7; Holt-0.6; Knight-0.1
APG: Surpin-4.0; Jones-2.6; Lostetter-2.3; Harrington-1.7; Delzell-1.6; Grady-1.1; Puzey-1.1; Toole-0.8; Braswell-0.7; Martin-0.6; Holt-0.4; Knight-0.2; Anderson-0.0

[PointGuard]

Various excerpts from the Youngstown Vindicator:

NIT:

Alabama-79, Wright St.-56

NIT Championship: California-73, Kent St.-62

CBI:

Valparaiso-83, UNLV-65
Portland St.-83, Youngstown St.-75

In their opening game in the CBI Tournament against Portland State, the Penguins fell behind 19-7 after 7 minutes of play. The Penguins struck back to tie the game at 22-22 with 7-1/2 minutes left in the half. But the Vikings then exploded and pulled away to lead 45-37 at the half. PG Ryan Surpin led the scoring for the Penguins with 11 points, but SF Manny Cox hit for 17 for Portland State.

Midway through the 2nd half, Youngstown State cut the Vikings lead to 2 points. Three minutes later the Penguins cut the lead to a single point. Portland State was able to extend their lead again and the Penguins exited the tournament by a score of 83-75. The difference in the ball game was that Portland State got 12 more free throw attempts and scored 12 more points from the line than did the Penguins and two of Youngstown State’s starters fouled out early.

Ryan Surpin and Tim Lostetter scored 19 and 18 points respectively for the 3rd game this season. Chad Delzell hit for 12 and Steven Puzey scored 10. Manny Cox finished with 22 points for the Vikings.

Portland St.-63, Valparaiso-53

CBI Championship: St. Francis (NY)-64, Kentucky-57

CIT:

CIT Championship: Northern Arizona-98, Kennesaw St.-84

NCAA Tourney:

#1 Seeds: Indiana (29-3); Wake Forest (24-7); Florida (28-5); Temple (27-4)
Wisconsin-Green Bay (#13 seed)

Georgia-71, Wisconsin-Green Bay-62

NCAA Championship: Louisville-84, Oregon-60

[PointGuard]

Youngstown State’s Post-Season News
By Steve Porter

Senior C Steven Puzey has been named to the Horizon All-Conference 2nd Team. Puzey led the Penguins in scoring and rebounding and played solid defense. Puzey said, "I'm honored to be selected. It's a nice way to finish my collegiate career here." Puzey later indicated he had no plans to pursue any further basketball activities since he has accepted an advertising position at Jensen Manufacturing after he graduates later this mon

Today the Athletic Department announced that Steve Simmons has been promoted from 2nd Assistant to 1st Assistant Coach and will remain in charge of recruiting. Two new coaches have been added for the upcoming season. A. D. Kenna has been hired as 2nd Assistant in charge of practice and Kirk Smith has been hired as 3rd Assistant and will handle scouting activities for the Penguins.

The 4th scholarship available this season was not filled. Apparently the high flyers that Youngstown State was pursuing were not sufficiently interested to accept scholarship offers. By the end of April, the team’s recruiting budget was fully expended limiting their last-minute efforts to fill the scholarship. Coach Durst indicated that the team will look closely at available transfer players and will go that route to fill the available scholarship if there is a good fit. Durst said, "We're looking forward to taking a close look at the many transfer players who will be looking for new schools to attend. While we're confident we can get a good transfer player, should that not work out, it just means we will have two scholarships to offer next season rather than one."

[PointGuard]

PENGUINS PREPARING FOR 2017-2018 SEASON
By Steve Porter

The Athletic Department announced that PG Linehan Murphy has transferred from Boston University to the Penguins. The 5’7” Murphy is from Worcester, Massachusetts and was a part-time starter in his freshman year at Boston. He will have to sit out a year but will be a sophomore eligibility-wise when he is eligible to play in the 2018-2019 season.
Steve Simmons, who now is 1st Assistant Coach, advised that even though they only have one scholarship to offer this season, they’ve been working hard to land the best available recruit they can. “We’d really like to gain a player who can come right in and contribute in a big way next season,” said Simmons, “But even though Coach Durst turned things around for the Penguins last season, we still don’t have the reputation that gets star players easily attracted to coming our way.”

[PointGuard]

Youngstown State Lands Recruit
By Steve Porter

Youngstown State’s Athletic Department announced that William Swan from Huron, Ohio has given a verbal acceptance for a scholarship to play for the Penguins’ basketball team next season. Swan is a 6’0” shooting guard who averaged 15.6 ppg as a junior last season for Huron High School. Steve Simmons, the Penguins recruiting coach, said, “We’re extremely pleased to have William coming to play for us. He’s has an outstanding jump shooter from outside but also can put the ball on the floor and drive to the basket. We expect him to put a lot of points on the board for us. He’s also got some great athleticism and plays solid defense.” While ranked higher earlier in the summer, Swan presently is ranked as the 276th best recruit nationally. Don Pardoe, Huron High School’s coach, praised Swan profusely, “William’s a very hard worker who has developed into a player who carries our team.” Swan will fill Youngstown State’s lone scholarship that they can offer this season.

[PointGuard]

Penguins 2017-2018 Season Beginning
By Steve Porter

The Youngstown State basketball season kicks off Tuesday when the Penguins travel to Connecticut to take on the Hartford Hawks. Other pre-conference games include away games against Loyola-Chicago, Pacific, North Alabama, Elon, and Stony Brook and home games against Ohio, George Mason, and Wichita State.

The Penguins had 3 starters from last season graduate and are picked to finish in 5th place in the Horizon League this season.

It’s anticipated the starting lineup this season will be:
PG Tim Lostetter, 5-6 sophomore who averaged 6.9 ppg last season
SG Josh Jones, 6-0 senior who averaged 10.0 ppg last season
SF Chad Delzell, 6-8 junior who averaged 6.7 ppg last season
PF Rich Braswell, 6-6 junior who averaged 4.2 ppg last season
C Jamal Grady, 6-10 sophomore who averaged 11.3 ppg last season
Reserves include:
Guards Levall Hart (6-3 So.) and Lonnie Holt (6-4 Jr.)
Small Forwards Rick Martin (6-6 Jr.) and William Worley (6-8 redshirt Fr.)
Power Forwards Aaron Tice (6-6 Fr.) and Charlie Praben (6-6 So.)
Centers Kent Jones (6-7 Fr.) and Kevin Anderson (6-8 So.)
B.J. Dennis has been redshirted and Linehan Murphy is sitting out the year due to having transferred.

Coach K.D. Durst said, “We have a young team this season and a pretty inexperienced bench. We had some good practices this past month and the guys worked hard so hopefully we develop quickly.”

[PointGuard]

A Tale of Two Halves
By Steve Porter

Traveling to Hartford, Connecticut, the season started poorly for the Penguins. It took over 4 minutes for the team to score. By that point, Hartford had a 9-0 lead and the Penguins had missed all 5 of their field goal attempts and had 3 turnovers. Two free throws by Aaron Tice finally put the Penguins on the board. But the team didn’t make their first field goal attempt until the 14:41 mark of the first half. Hitting just 24% of their first half shots, Youngstown State trailed the Hawks 37-25 at the break.

The Penguins defense stymied the Hawks, allowing the Penguins to take a 43-42 lead after 7 minutes of play in the 2nd half. With 6:15 remaining in the game, Youngstown State’s lead had grown to 57-50. The Penguins then put the Hawks away with a potent offense and a stalwart defense, pulling away for a 74-56 beatdown of Hartford. The Penguins outscored Hartford 49-19 in the 2nd half.

Youngstown State’s 2nd half turn-around resulted in the Penguins holding a 38-27 rebounding edge, a 47% to 35% shooting advantage, and hitting 22 of 25 free throws. SG Josh Jones scored 16 points (all in the 2nd half) and pulled down 8 rebounds. PF Aaron Tice hit for 14 points and PF Rich Bramwell added 12 points plus had 7 rebounds. Centers Jamal Grady and Kent Jones combined for 17 points and 7 boards.

Josh Jones admitted, “At halftime Coach Durst really blistered us for our poor play. He then exited the locker room so that we as a team were left to get together to commit to turning things around. That led to our coming out on fire when we took the court in the 2nd half. We all pulled together both offensively and defensively for the entire 20 minutes.”

Youngstown State (1-0) now travels to Chicago to take on the Loyola-Chicago Ramblers (0-1) Friday night.