On the Friday afternoon after Thanksgiving, the Youngstown State Penguins men’s basketball team (4-4) put their feet on the gas pedal and never took it off of there in their 87-64 blowout win over the still-winless Chicago State Cougars (0-8) inside Zidian Family Arena at Beeghly Center.
The Cougars scored the game’s first two points on a steal and a fastbreak layup from Prairie View A&M grad transfer Braelon Bush, but the Penguins scored the next 15 unanswered points all the way to the 14:48 mark and led by double digits for the rest of the day. During that 15-0 run, four different Penguins made threes: Charlotte transfer Rich Rolf, seniors Jason Nelson and Cris Carroll, and sixth-year grad student Cam Polak.
Up 23-11 at one point, YSU went on another 8-0 run with a layup from senior Imanuel Zorgvol and back-to-back treys from Carroll and Polak to grow their lead to 20 at 31-11 with 7:59 left in the first stanza. Between those triples, Zorgvol recorded a rejection of a layup from Chicago State senior Marcus Tankersley, a grad transfer from Alcorn State. JUCO transfer Tae Blackshear would hit a three-pointer of his own to make it a 24-point game at 38-14 with 5:54 to go. Just like that, YSU hit nine of their first 13 shots from long range and had their biggest lead of the half at that point. Near the end of the half, Rolf found Zorgvol for an alley-oop dunk as Ethan Faulkner’s Penguins went into the locker room with a 46-26 advantage.
Just 4:04 into the second stanza, Nelson threw a perfect alley-oop pass to Dawkins, who threw it down to finish off the fastbreak and put the Penguins up 56-30. Later on, Youngstown State recorded its largest lead of the afternoon at a 35-point margin at 87-52 thanks to a layup from fifth-year senior Derrick Anderson with 3:26 to go. Then, Chicago State ended the day on a 12-0 run with three straight made shots from Bush, a layup from sophomore Lionel Larvadain III, free throws from freshman Malek Robinson, and a jumper from senior Dailiss Cox.
The Penguins made 41.5 percent of their threes by hitting 17 of them in 41 attempts and were one made triple shy of tying the school record, but they failed to convert on their last eight tries from beyond the arc. They also made 50.8 percent (30-of-59) of their overall shots and 71.4 percent (10-of-14) of their free throws. All 12 YSU players saw the court, and 11 of them scored.
“I was really pleased with the way we played, particularly the way we shared the basketball,” Faulkner said after the game. “23 assists on 30 made baskets is always a recipe for success. I thought defensively, we executed a lot of what we wanted to do, and it was good to get some guys in the game that haven’t gotten to get out there and play much to see what they could do in some live game action and give them a chance to try and earn some more minutes.”
Carroll (5/8 3-PT) and Dawkins (6/9 FG) led YSU in scoring with 15 points each, with all of Carroll’s points coming from beyond the arc. “It’s just staying connected,” Dawkins said regarding the team’s past few days. “We know the pieces that we have in here, we know everybody’s strength. We had a couple of talks between us just as a team, who do you think we are, where we need to be at, how can we get there, and stuff like that. So with us just keeping in our DNA, just stay connected, move the ball, one more, just build that trust between each other, get a better understanding of each other, and we’ll just take off.”
Vlad Salaridze, a transfer from Tennessee-Martin, added 13 points and five rebounds in 16 minutes off the bench while shooting 3-of-4 from downtown and a perfect 4-for-4 at the charity stripe. “We’ve been looking forward to this home cooking for a while,” the Georgian said about playing a home game after the team’s four-game road trip. “I think the majority of the month, we’ve been playing on road games. We’re really excited to be in front of our fans.”
Nelson contributed nine points to go along with five assists and four steals for the Penguins.
Landon Bussie’s Chicago State squad shot a poor 37.7 percent (23-of-61) from the field and 30.8 percent (4-of-13) on threes, but they made a solid 82.4 percent (14-of-17) of their foul shots and even outrebounded YSU 36-32. Prairie View A&M transfer Chauncey Gibson and Southern Arkansas transfer CJ Ray led the Cougars with 14 points each, 11 points and five assists off the bench for NAIA Fisk University transfer Doyel Cockrill III, and 10 points for Bush.
Up next: Youngstown State will open Horizon League action by hosting the Wright State Raiders on Wednesday, December 3 for a 6:30 p.m. tip-off at Zidian Family Arena at Beeghly Center. The game will be televised on ESPN+.
James Moon (CashApp): $JRMoon91
Subscribe to our emails, and get our latest posts in your inbox, plus a weekly digest of everything we've published!
