Penguins Duke It Out With Dukes
By Steve Porter
Asked about last night’s opponent the Duquesne Dukes before the game, Coach KD Durst replied, “The Dukes are an outside shooting team. All three of their starting perimeter players are averaging in double figures. We need to throttle their outside game.” The Dukes record stood at 3-1 coming into the game.
The Penguins’ inside due of Aaron Tice and Will O’Neil put their team on top 8-0 before two minutes has been played. As YSU continued to score inside, by the middle of the first half, they had increased their lead to 25-12. By hitting 51% of their shots, scoring 34 points in the paint and 14 points on fast breaks, out-rebounding Duquesne 19-15, and holding a 13-4 turnover advantage, the Penguins came out of the first half with a commanding 44-24 lead. PF Aaron Tice scored 16 and grabbed 6 boards and C Will O’Neil dropped in 14 points.
With 15 minutes left in the game, YSU’s lead had ballooned to 60-31. But midway through the second half, Duquesne roared back cutting the lead to 66-50 with an all-substitute Penguins squad on the floor. Youngstown State quickly rebuilt a 20+ point lead and sailed to an 80-59 drubbing of the Dukes the improved their record to 4-2. YSU outshot the Dukes 51% to 37%, controlled the boards 41-26, held a 17-11 turnover advantage, and scored 52 points in the paint. The only team advantage held by Duquesne was that they hit 11 of 24 three pointers compared to the Penguins 3 for 16 shooting from beyond the arc.
PF Aaron Tice led the scoring for the Penguins with 24 points and also grabbed 8 rebounds, C Will O’Nei scored 21 and pulled down 10 boards, and reserve C Kent Jones added 10 points.
“Coach Durst developed a game plan to exploit the Dukes inside and we were able to make that game plan work,” said Aaron Tice. “We got the crowd behind us early and with the rest of the team working the ball inside, Will, Kent and I were able to drop in a lot of shots. It was a lot of fun out there tonight.”