YSU Wins 5th Straight Game, Remain Unbeaten at Home

The Youngstown State Penguins men’s basketball team (7-4, 2-0 Horizon) completely owned the day from start to finish in their 103-52 victory over the Thiel Tomcats (4-5, 1-1 Presidents’ Athletic Conference) on Sunday afternoon inside Zidian Family Arena at Beeghly Center. Ethan Faulkner’s squad has now won five straight games and remains without a blemish on their home court at 4-0, while Tim Loomis’ Tomcats are now 0-4 away from Maenpa Court at Beeghly Gymnasium.

YSU wasted no time making a statement as Cris Carroll made a three just 19 seconds into the game before Rich Rolf scored eight of the squad’s next 10 points. Then, three made free throws from Tae Blackshear and a layup from Jaiden Haynes made it an 18-5 advantage through the first 6:31 of the game.

Thiel only made one shot from the field in their first 13 attempts before sophomore Anthony Henderson II hit back-to-back triples, which the margin down to seven at 18-11 at the 11:18 mark, but YSU answered back with 10 unanswered points and had a double-digit advantage for the rest of the afternoon. The 10-0 run started with back-to-back treys from Jason Nelson and Bryson Dawkins, followed by consecutive layups from Rolf and Dawkins to make it 28-11 with 7:36 remaining in the first stanza.

The Penguins recorded their first 20-point lead of the day at 36-16 with back-to-back three-pointers from Carroll with 4:21 to go. Later on, YSU scored seven of the last nine points of the first half with a three by Vlad Salaridze and back-to-back buckets from Imanuel Zorgvol to go up 46-22 at the intermission.

YSU picked up right where they left off in the second half by hitting 12 of their first 15 shot attempts, and they ended up with a 31-point cushion at 65-34 thanks to a three from Salaridze, followed by a steal and dunk from Haynes with 14:14 left in the game. The Penguins then went on a 13-0 run with a Salaridze layup, a Nelson three, a steal and a layup from Tyler Robinett, back-to-back buckets from Dawkins, and a Drew King tip-in to go up 78-36 at the 9:37 mark. Near the end, the Penguins used an 8-0 run to help them go past the century mark with back-to-back layups from Derrick Anderson, followed by consecutive tip-ins from Robinett and Haynes.

Carroll led the Penguins with 17 points in just 20 minutes of action and shot 4-of-6 from three-land, while Salaridze and Haynes recorded a dozen points each, and Nelson scored 10 of his own. Haynes was a perfect 5-for-5 from the field on the afternoon.

“Thought we did a lot of good stuff on both sides of the ball. still some things we go to clean up,” Faulkner said after the game. “But offensively, get over 100, have 21 assists, make 13 threes, all positives for us. Defensively, we got to continue to rebound the ball better. Obviously, gave up 13 offensive rebounds again tonight. Continues to be an area of concern for our team, but our team’s making progress. I thought this last week was a great week for us because we could get in the gym, just work on things that we needed to get better at. Making some progress, feel good about where we’re at, and got a big week moving forward.”

Rolf finished with a baker’s dozen points of his own while shooting 6-of-8 from the field, recording his fourth double-digit scoring outing in his last five games. “My teammates just putting me in positions where I can help,” he said after the game. “If that’s scoring, if that’s facilitating, just my teammates putting me in the right position to help out anyway I can.”

Youngstown State shot 59.4 percent (41-of-69) from the field overall, 41.9 percent (13-of-31) from three-point range, and 72.7 percent (8-of-11) from the charity stripe. They scored 54 of their 103 points in the paint, never trailed in the contest, and committed only seven turnovers. All 12 YSU players who played ended up scoring.

Thiel shot 36.7 percent (22-of-60) on field goals, 30 percent on threes (3-of-10), and 62.5 percent (5-of-8) from the foul line. Anthony Henderson II, a sophomore, was the only Tomcat in double-figure scoring with 15 points.

Up next: Youngstown State will leap back into Horizon League action with a road game against the Robert Morris Colonials – the defending undisputed Horizon League Champions – on Wednesday, December 15 for a 7 PM tip-off at the UPMC Events Center in the Steel City of Pittsburgh, PA.

James Moon (CashApp): $JRMoon1991