The Town Crier

[PointGuard]

Fortunes Turn for the Penguins
By Steve Porter

The Oakland Golden Grizzlies came to town last night with a 5-2 league record. If they could pull off a win against 6-1 Youngstown State, they would pull into a tie with the Penguins.

The Penguins jumped out on top and seemed to have things in control until their offense sputtered. Oakland took a single point lead with 7 minutes left in the half. The lead shifted back and forth the rest of the half. When the buzzer sounded ending the first half, the score was tied 37-37. PG Pat White, SF Colin Chambliss, and PG Linehan Murphy each scored 7 points.

Youngstown State held a lead throughout the 2nd half, but Oakland hit a 3 with 56 seconds left in the game to cut the Penguins lead to 78-76. Then the Golden Grizzlies picked off a pass and scored on a driving layup to tie the game. Another turnover by the Penguins in the backcourt gave Oakland a last second long 3 that went cleanly through the basket giving them an upset 81-78 win. YSU’s loss dropped them into a tie with Oakland for 2nd place in the league.

SF Colin Chambliss led the Penguins scoring with 18 points. C Will O’Neil hit for 15, and PG Pat White, SG William Swan and SF James Asbury each scored 10 points. SG Donte Ferguson scored 23 for Oakland.

“We gave this game away. We were in control until the last few minutes and then folded like a cheap tent,” said Coach KD Durst dejectedly. “We’ve not played up to our potential the last two games. We need to regain our mojo.”

[PointGuard]

Penguins Feel the Burn
By Steve Porter

The UIC Flames hit 5 of 7 three-pointers early in the Youngstown State’s game last night and took a 29-16 lead after 9 minutes of play. Late in the half the Penguins were able to cut into the lead and closed to within 43-37 at the break. C Will O’Neil scored 16.

The Flames came out hot again in the 2nd half and went ahead 58-44 with 16 minutes left. YSU was dropped behind by as much as 20 points and ended up taking an 84-69 drubbing. The Penguins uncharacteristically turned the ball over 17 times, but the primary differences in the game were that the Flames hit 10 of 23 threes while YSU was able to connect on only 1 of 8 and UIC got to the line 11 more times the YSU.

C Will O’Neil scored 21 points while SF Colin Chambliss hit for 13. But UIC’s two starting guards combined for 40 points with SG Gary Cunningham dropping in 22 and PG Bret Maloney adding 18.

Coach KD Durst said, “UIC simply outplayed us tonight. I guess you could call this an old-fashion butt-kicking. This third straight loss dropped us into 3rd place in the league, so we now have to dig our way out of the hole we’ve created.”

During the Penguins 11 game win streak, they held their opponents to 46-72 points each game, but in their 3 straight losses, their defense has fallen apart and they’ve given up 80+ points in each loss.

[PointGuard]

Penguins Pounce on Panthers
By Steve Porter

PG Pat White scored 10 points in the first 7 minutes of the game to lead the Penguins as they took a 16-12 lead over the visiting Milwaukee Panthers last night. They expanded their advantage to 38-20 with 4 minutes remaining in the half as they forced repeated turnovers by the Panthers. The half ended with YSU on top 42-27. Milwaukee had 14 turnovers compared to just 2 by Youngstown State. White’s 10 points, 3 assists, 3 rebounds, and 3 steals led the Penguins in the half.

Milwaukee cut the lead to 10 points but then the Penguins spurted out to a 57-34 lead with 14 minutes to go in the game. With YSU hitting 49% of their shots and holding a 26-4 turnover advantage, the Penguins got back on the winning track again by the score of 89-60.

C Will O’Neil scored 21 points while PG Pat White hit for 20. SF Colin Chambliss contributed 12.

The victory improved Youngstown State’s league record to 7-3 and put them in a tie for 2nd place one game behind Oakland.

“We were sick and tired of losing,” said PG Pat White. “We knew we had to get back to playing strong defensively, so tonight was a good step in that direction. We’ve got to travel to Detroit, the team that’s tied for 2nd place with us, for our next game, so we’ll need to play our best and hopefully this game was a good tune up for that.”

[PointGuard]

O’Neil Wins Double Honors
By Steve Porter

The Horizon League again awarded both their Freshman Player of the Week and their Player of the Week awards to the Penguins’ C Will O’Neil. O’Neil has now won 9 of 11 weekly Freshman of the Week awards handed out by the Horizon League and 2 Player of the Week awards.

After 19 games this season O’Neil is now averaging 19.1 ppg, which is tops in the Horizon League. He’s also averaging 6.6 rpg which is 5th best in the league and 1.1 bpg which is tied for 5th best in the league.

Other Penguins in the Top 5 in statistical categories for the Horizon League are PG Pat White who tops the league in assists, averaging 5.9 apg and PF Aaron Tice whose 7.1 rpg is 4th best in the league.

“It’s been fun watching this kid develop,” said senior PG Lenihan Murphy about Will O’Neil. “He came into practice with a good rep, but without expectations that he’d win a starting role, let alone carry our team offensively. He has an uncanny ability to work his way to the basket and put the ball in the hoop. He’s also got a nice jump shot that makes it hard for defenders since if they fight to keep him from driving to the bucket, he can just pull up and pop in a shot. He’s hitting 2/3 of his shots from up to 10 feet from the basket and over 60% of his shots overall. He’s scored 20+ points in 9 of our games and been in double figures in all but one game for us.”

[PointGuard]

SAT Results Alter Penguins’ Recruiting Efforts
By Steve Porter

With three of four available scholarships yet to fill, recruiting remains a big challenge for the Penguins’ coaching staff. Brandon Warren, 1st assistant coach and the man in charge of recruiting for Coach KD Durst said, “Due to their failure to meet our minimum SAT requirements we lost a couple very talented and highly rated recruits who were high up on our list. But we still have a bunch of very strong players we’re continuing to watch and keep in contact with and now we'll just focus more upon those recruits. Right now our goal is to continue to build their interest in our program, while keeping our recruiting costs down, so we can have a good chance of landing them once their high school or JC seasons are completed this spring. Morris Phelan, the recruit who has signed a Letter of Intent for us already, is a great inside player, but we want to sign at least one more big man and a talented guard, preferably a point guard. Coach KD and I remain very optimistic about our chances this spring.”

[PointGuard]

DEEE-Fense!
By Steve Porter

Youngstown State’s game last night against the Detroit Titans was a battle for sole possession of 2nd place in the Horizon Leagues. The Penguins defeated the Titans 91-70 earlier this season, but that was at home and last night’s game sent the Penguins on the road.

The game was a defensive battle early with both teams making it tough for the other to get clear shots. After 5-1/2 minutes of play, YSU led 9-5 with 4 of the starters in the scoring column. But with 11 minutes to go in the half, Detroit took its first lead at 14-13. The Penguins regained the lead and held it until the half ended with YSU ahead 34-29. Both teams hit about 35% of their shots in the half. C Will O’Neil scored 10 points to lead YSU while his counterpart, C William Rogers, led the Titans with 8 points.

The defenses continued to make scoring difficult in the 2nd half, but led Will O’Neil along with a tenacious team defense, the Penguins gained a 12 point advantage at 43-31 with 14 minutes remaining. YSU then expanded their lead to 17 before settling for a 66-55 victory. While the Penguins hit just 37% of the FG attempts, they held Detroit’s shooting to 33% while forcing the Titans to turn the ball over 17 times and controlled the boards 41-33.

C Will O’Neil dropped in 22 points and grabbed 11 rebounds and also had 2 steals and 2 blocks. SF Colin Chambliss scored 9 points but pulled down 16 boards and had 1 steal and 3 blocks.

“This was our best defensive effort of the year, except for the final 5 minutes when we were coasting,” said Coach KD Durst. “Detroit has a very good team, so defeating them on their court was big for us.”

[PointGuard]

Offenses Sputter
By Steve Porter

After a strong start, Valparaiso’s season has fallen on hard times, particularly after C Travon Capel broke his finger. But Valparaiso took a small lead early in the game, but even though the Penguins’ shooting was abysmal, their lock-down defense allowed them to gain an 11-10 lead with 8:12 remaining in the half. But while the Penguins held the Crusaders shooting to 29%, YSU could only manage to sink 20% of their shots and fell behind 20-16 at the break. C Will O’Neil was the only Penguin not exhibiting ice-cold shooting. He had 9 points in the half.

As Youngstown State’s shooting woes continued, Valparaiso took a 26-16 lead after 2 minutes of play in the 2nd half. At that point the Penguins began to dig themselves out of the hole they had dug and with 12:42 to play, B.J. Dennis hit a 15 foot jumper to tie the game at 31-31. But the Penguins continued to shoot poorly and fell behind again until Will O’Neil drove to the basket and put in a shot over his defender that gave YSU a 47-46 lead with 1:26 to play. Then B.J. Dennis picked off a pass as the Crusaders worked the ball around trying to get a free shot. Dennis lofted an alley-oop pass to a driving Colin Chambliss who jammed it down to give YSU a 49-46 advantage with 38 ticks on the clock. The Penguins then harassed the Crusaders to keep them from being able to put up a shot. Valparaiso tossed up a contested shot with 16 seconds remaining but it was off the mark and the Penguins rebounded. YSU called a quick timeout to get their best foul shooters on the floor. The ball was inbounded and quickly passed to Pat White on the left wing. He was fouled but was able to put the ball up in the air outside the arc so was awarded 3 shots. He only made one of his shots though but that gave the Penguins a 4 point lead. Valparaiso quickly brought the ball up court and hit a last second 3 to make the final score 50-49 in favor of Youngstown State.

On a night when the Penguins hit just 33% of their FG attempts and only 2 of 17 from 3-point distance and 4 of 10 from the free throw line, they were able to limit Valparaiso’s shooting to 35% for force the Crusaders to make 21 turnovers thus allowing YSU to escape with a razor-thin victory. The win improved their season record to 16-5 and their league record to 9-3, leaving them in 2nd place, one game behind Oakland, in the Horizon League.

Leading Youngstown State was C Will O’Neil who recorded another double-double (15 points and 13 rebounds) to go along with a steal and 2 blocks. SF Chris Chambliss scored 11 and yanked down 9 boards.

“We were unable to click offensively the entire game. We only were able to pull off a last minute win due to playing solid defense all night,” said Coach KD Durst. “Each one of those misses clanking off the rim just seemed to get louder and louder to me as the game progressed. This game definitely gave me some gray hairs.”

[PointGuard]

O’Neil Doubles Again
By Steve Porter

By scoring 37 points, grabbing 24 rebounds, and garnering 3 steals and 5 blocks, C Will O’Neil again won both the Player of the Week and Freshman of the Week awards in the Horizon League for this past week. O’Neil is now averaging 19.0 ppg (tops in the league) and 7.1 rpg (4th best in the league) for the entire season.

“Will simply took the team on his shoulders and carried us to two big wins this past week,” said Coach KD Durst.

[PointGuard]

Penguins Burned by Norse
By Steve Porter

Northern Kentucky blitzed the Penguins in the first 2-1/2 minutes and took an 11-0 lead. After 5-1/4 minutes of play YSU trailed 21-4 and both PF Aaron Tice and C Will O’Neil were relegated to the bench with two fouls apiece. Northern Kentucky continued to burn the Penguins by hitting 13 of their first 14 shots and 15 of their first 17 to take a 37-12 lead with 9 minutes to play in the half. The Penguins then went on a 13-0 run that cut the lead to 12 points. But the Norse cam back to take a 46-28 lead to the locker room. Northern Kentucky hit 61% of their shots compared to 39% by the Penguins. C Will O’Neil scored 9 points for YSU.

In the 2nd half, Youngstown State seemed to be making headway several times early in the half, but the Norse stopped any sustained run each time. But with 7:18 to play, the Penguins had reduced the lead to 63-53. Then with 3:18 left, the lead had shrunken to 67-60. A lay-in by Will O’Neil with 1:50 to play put the Penguins within 4 at 68-64. But that was as close as they could get and Northern Kentucky pasted a loss on YSU by a score of 74-66. The loss dropped the Penguins back into a tie with Detroit for 2nd place in the Horizon League, a game behind 1st place Oakland.

Leading the scoring for Youngstown State was C Will O’Neil with 17 points and he pulled down 8 rebounds. PF Aaron Tice added 11 points and 7 boards.

“We ran into a hot-shooting Norse team tonight. We made a nice run but it was just too late in the game,” said Coach KD Durst. “It was a disappointing loss since Oakland finally lost and we could have pulled into a tie for 1st if we’d won.”

[PointGuard]

Youngstown State Dusts Up Phoenix
By Steve Porter

Youngstown State jumped out to an 13-2 lead over visiting Wisconsin-Green Bay last night. But the Phoenix pulled ahead 21-20 with 7-1/2 minutes left in the half. The Penguins then surged to a 46-33 halftime advantage as they forced the Phoenix to turn the ball over 13 times in the half. C Will O’Neil scored 14 and pulled down 6 boards.

The Penguins maintained a double-digit lead throughout most of the 2nd half. By gaining a 22-9 turnover advantage and a 32-27 rebounding advantage, the Penguins won with easy 89-81 to remain in a 2nd place tie in the Horizon League.

C Will O’Neil had a double-double with 27 points and 10 rebounds. PF Aaron Tice dropped in 14 points, SG William Swan hit for 11, and SF James Asbury and C Kent Jones both scored 10.