YSU Men’s Basketball Loses By 17 at Toledo

The Youngstown State Penguins men’s basketball team (2-3) had an early lead to start the evening, but they ended up on the short end of the stick with a tough 92-75 defeat at the hands of the Toledo Rockets (3-2) on Wednesday night at Savage Arena. 

The Penguins scored eight unanswered points with a putback layup from senior Cris Carroll off his own miss, followed by back-to-back three-pointers from junior college transfer Tae Blackshear and UT-Martin transfer Vlad Salaridze to take a 13-9 lead at the 13:08 mark. 

However, Toledo went on to score 15 of the next 18 points. They started it by scoring eight unanswered points of their own with a layup from another junior college transfer in Mynor Strong, followed by consecutive triples by sophomore Jaylan Ouwinga and freshman Leroy Blyden Jr. to take a 17-13 lead at the 9:51 point. Following a three from YSU senior Bryson Dawkins, the Rockets went on another run of 7-0 with three made free throws from Blyden, along with layups from Ohio State transfer Austin Parks and freshman Will James Jr. to make it 24-16 with 7:40 left in the half. 

YSU then went on a quick 7-2 run with baskets by Salaridze and Charlotte transfer Rich Rolf, plus a three-point play by Elon transfer Drew King to trail 26-23 at the 5:23 mark. But the Rockets scored nine of the next 12 points to extend the lead to nine at 35-26 with 3:02 left in the first half, with junior Sonny Wilson scoring five points in that run. 

Toledo extended the lead to 12 at 41-29 following four consecutive points from Parks, who got a layup, stole the ball from redshirt senior Jason Nelson, and nailed a pair of free throws after a foul from senior Imanuel Zorgvol at the 1:03 mark. However, Nelson and Dawkins hit consecutive treys to make it a two-possession deficit at 41-35 to end the half. 

IU-Indy transfer Sean Craig opened up the second half with a bang, scoring six of the first 13 second-half points to give the Rockets a 49-40 lead with 17:22 to go. Following a Rolf layup that made it a 49-42 deficit, Toledo went on to score 14 of the next 19 points over the next 3:34 to go up 63-47 with 12:41 to go, which ended with seven straight points courtesy of a Blyden three and back-to-back Ouwinga layups. Later on, the Rockets went on their second 7-0 run of the night to go up by 21 at 76-55 with a Blyden layup, made free throws from James, and a three-point play from Parks in which he threw down a thunderous poster dunk on Salaridze. 

Ethan Faulkner’s Penguins then scored 13 of the next 15 points to waddle back within 10 at 78-68 and ended up scoring 10 unanswered points, with Carroll three triples in that 13-2 run, but YSU didn’t get any closer than that for the remainder of the night. 

Dawkins led the Penguins with 16 points, with 14 coming from Carroll and a baker’s dozen (13) off the bench from Salaridze. As a team, YSU shot 49.1 percent (28-of-57) from the field, 37.9 percent (11-of-29) on threes, and 66.7 percent (8-of-12) on foul shots. 

Tod Kowalczyk’s Toledo squad had five players score in double-figures led by Craig’s first double-double as a Rocket with 18 points (7-of-11 FG) and 12 rebounds. 18 points and four steals for Blyden, 11 points for Wilson, and 10 points each for Parks and James. Toledo shot well all night long by nailing 54.2 percent (32-of-59) of their field goals, 40 percent (6-of-15) of their three-pointers, and 84.6 percent (22-of-26) of their free throws. 

Toledo also won the rebound battle 31-28 and scored 31 points off 22 YSU turnovers. This season, they are now a perfect 3-of-3 against Horizon League foes with wins over Wright State and Detroit Mercy already. They will have two more Horizon League games on the road in each of the first two Saturdays of December at Oakland (December 6) and Robert Morris (December 13). 

Up next: Youngstown State will head down south to the Sunshine State of Florida to take on the UNC-Greensboro Spartans, a Southern Conference opponent, on Sunday, November 23 as part of the Jacksonville Classic. Tip-off is set for 5:30PM ET at the Adams-Jenkins Community Sports & Music Complex at Edward Waters University in Jacksonville, FL.

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