The Youngstown State Penguins’ basketball teams suffered some hard-luck setbacks on Saturday afternoon, marking the first time since November 23, 2024 that both Ethan Faulkner and Melissa Jackson’s squads have lost games on the exact same day.
The men’s team (9-11, 2-7 Horizon) fell just short on the road in an 80-78 road stint against the Cleveland State Vikings (6-14, 2-7 Horizon) at the Wolstein Center, while the women’s team (13-5, 6-2) ended up being the victims of Horizon’s gonna Horizon crime following a 61-52 home defeat at the hands of the IU Indy Jaguars (6-11, 2-6 Horizon) at Zidian Family Arena at Beeghly Center.
In the men’s game, Cleveland State recorded its biggest lead in the first stanza at 28-21 at the 2:48 mark, after Green Bay transfer Foster Wonders and Florida International transfer Jaidon Lipscomb each made a pair of free throws.
But the Penguins scored seven unanswered points through the last 1:35 of the first half, with a Vlad Salaridze layup and five straight points from Cris Carroll, to tie it up at 28-all at halftime. YSU made it a 10-0 run after Jason Nelson’s three kicked off the second half scoring for the 31-28 lead.
After the Vikings’ Tre Beard tied the game at 37 with a three, the Penguins scored nine straight points to take their largest lead of the game at 46-37 with 14:36 to go – courtesy of made free throws from Rolf – before Carroll scored the next seven points in a row.
Rob Summers’ Vikings fought back and eventually knotted it up at 59-all after Dayan Nessah hit a pair of free throws with 7:40 to go, and they went on an 8-3 run to regain the 67-62 lead. However, the Penguins scored seven of the next nine points and tied it up at 69 thanks to a Tae Blackshear three-point shot with 3:13 remaining.
Cleveland State then scored nine of the next dozen points over the next 2:25 for the 78-72 advantage, which was highlighted by a three-pointer off the glass from Chavalier Emery.
Baskets by Nelson and Dawkins were followed up by a pair of made free throws from Dawkins, which made it a one-point deficit at 79-78 with 19 seconds left. After Emery went one of two at the foul line, Blackshear missed a go-ahead triple before Jaiden Haynes missed a potential game-tying contested two-pointer at the end of the contest.
Carroll recorded his first double-double of the season with 21 points and 11 rebounds to lead YSU, which saw all five starters score in double figures. 14 points for Dawkins, 11 points each for Nelson and Rolf, and 10 points for Salaridze.
The Youngstown State men outrebounded Cleveland State 38-29, had a plus-six in the turnover margin (15-9), and a plus-20 in points in the paint (38-18). While the Penguins made a good 87.6 percent (14-of-16) of their free throws, they also shot a poor 38.4 percent (28-of-73) from the field and an abysmal 18.6 percent (8-of-43) from beyond the arc.
The Vikings were led by Nessah, who led all scorers with 26 points on 5-of-9 shooting from the field and a mind-blowing 15-for-21 (71.4 percent) from the charity stripe. 17 points off the bench for Emery, 16 points for Beard, and 12 points off the bench for Wonders.
The Vikings were 30-of-39 (76.9 percent) from the line as a team, while also shooting 51.3 percent (20-of-39) from the field and 50 percent (10-of-20) on threes.
In the women’s game against IU Indy, the two squads both clamped down on defense in the first two minutes of the contest before the Jaguars’ Destini Craig scored the first bucket. YSU got on the board after Sophia Gregory jumped in front of an Olivia Smith pass and went coast-to-coast for a bucket of her own at the 6:26 mark, but that ended up being Gregory’s only points of the day as she played just 17 minutes due to committing five fouls.
Sarah Baker scored on the very next possession for YSU before Erica King split a pair of shots at the line for the 5-2 lead, but IU Indy scored nine of the last 13 points of the first quarter, including five unanswered points with a midrange shot from Kamara Mills and a three-pointer from Nevaeh Foster with seven seconds left for the 11-9 advantage.
In the second quarter, it was the Danielle Cameron show. The redshirt freshman literally made everyone think “Wham, bam, thank you, Cam” as she lit it up from downtown by making five straight three-point attempts from beyond the arc in a 5:52 span, from the 7:54 mark until the 2:02 mark. Her third longball of the period came on Santoro’s 300th career NCAA assist, which knotted the score back up at 18.
“Like what Coach [Jackson] said, she was getting on us to take our open shots,” Cameron said, echoing Jackson. “We practice a lot of shots in practice, outside of practice. So she’s confident in us, and we were just passing them up at the beginning. I think that’s why, because they [IU Indy] had very good help side. That’s something they really excel at, so we needed to take those shots to exploit it. I think in the second quarter, she just got into us. Take the good shots when they’re open, so that’s what I did and happened to make them today.”
The Penguins took a 25-24 lead after Cameron split a pair of foul shots with 44 seconds left in the first half, but Smith answered back by making both of her free throw tries at the other end with five seconds remaining to give the Jags a 26-25 lead at recess.
Foster buried a three-ball just a dozen seconds into the second half to push the margin to two possessions at 29-25, but Youngstown State scored six unanswered points over the next 1:42 to take a 31-29 lead thanks to a Baker layup, made free throws from Santoro, and a layup from King. Ariana Williams evened it back up at 31 with a layup at the 5:52 mark, but Brooke Adkins – just 13 seconds later – hit a stepback triple to give the Penguins the 34-31 advantage.
IU Indy scored 11 of the next 13 points while holding YSU scoreless for 2:01 and allowing only one field goal over the next 5:10, but Santoro ended both of those droughts with a pair of free throws and a pull-up jumper on their final possession to make it a one-possession deficit at 42-40. However, Mills hit a huge triple at the third-quarter buzzer to push the margin to five at 45-40.
The Jaguars made it an 8-0 run after scoring the first five points of the fourth quarter, starting with another three by Mills 35 seconds in, followed by a Foster bucket for the first double-digit lead of the day at 50-40 with 7:47 remaining in regulation.
Santoro and Baker scored on back-to-back Penguins possessions, but IU Indy was ready to pounce right back as they scored the next nine unanswered points with a three-point play and two more free throws from Craig, followed by a pair of foul shots from Smith, and a Williams layup. As a result, Kate Bruce’s squad extended their lead to 15 at 59-44 with 2:59 to go in the game.
The YSU women went on an 8-2 run over the last 2:57 of the game, but it was too late to come back.
“They make you play that way,” Jackson said, regarding IU Indy’s defensive efforts. “It’s definitely a different, unique style. They switch everything; they’re extremely physical. I give them a lot of credit. I thought we prepared our group well enough for how hard they play. I’ve told them multiple times now. They’ve positioned themselves that they’re going to get every single buddy’s best effort, and we absolutely got that tonight from IU Indy. Again, give them a ton of credit. I don’t like our response. We got punched in the mouth early with some physicality, and we have to be better. Our young group has to understand how to punch back, not physically, but just with our play and show some toughness there. This group has really done that all year, so this was very characteristic of them.”
Cameron led the Youngstown State women with 16 points on 5-of-7 shooting from downtown to go along with seven rebounds, three assists, and two steals while playing all 40 minutes. Santoro scored 14, while Baker scored 10. YSU shot a poor 40.9 percent (18-of-44) from the field, 36.8 percent (7-of-19) from downtown, and 50 percent (9-of-18) from the foul line.
IU Indy won numerous battles in the stat category, such as rebounds (32-25), points in the paint (24-16), assists (15-12), and even bench points (25-7). While the Jags committed one more turnover (20-19) and shot a poor 40.4 percent (21-of-52) overall from the field, they did make 40 percent (8-of-20) of their threes and made all 11 of their free throw attempts on their way to their first road win of the season.
Smith led IU Indy with 16 points on 5-of-7 shooting from the field, followed by 11 points each for Foster and Mills, and 10 points and eight rebounds off the bench for Williams.
Up next:
– The women’s team will hit the road to play at Robert Morris on Wednesday, January 21 at 6 p.m. at the UPMC Events Center.
– The men’s team will return home for a three-game homestand starting with a contest against Green Bay on Thursday, January 22 for a 6:30 p.m. tip-off at Zidian Family Arena at Beeghly Center.
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