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YOUNGSTOWN -- Francisco Santiago remembers it like it was yesterday. He and Cameron Morse both came to campus near the fall of 2014.
Morse was signed in late July out of Flint, Michigan, while Santiago was a walk-on from Cleveland St. Ignatius. The two became roommates, but didn't say much.
"We really didn't talk, for like the first month, a lot," Santiago said. "Little by little, we realized we were the same kind of people."
The two noticed they were both competitive players and looked at top players around the NBA -- having the same opinion about those athletes. It soon became a great relationship on the court.
"Basically we have each other's back, no matter what," Santiago said. "That's just outside of basketball. I'll do anything for him when he needs it. I know the same he'll do for me.
"That makes playing with him a lot easier."
Nowadays, the two let their actions speak for them on the basketball court.
Morse is the Horizon League's second-leading scorer behind Valparaiso's Alec Peters with 22 per game. Peters is at 24. The Crusaders (12-4, 2-1 Horizon League) come to the Beeghly Center tonight at 7:45 p.m.
Santiago puts in 16 points per game, along with almost nine rebounds per game. Arguably these two are the best backcourt in the Horizon League.
"Going into the year I thought our backcourt was our strength," said coach Jerry Slocum, whose team is 8-9, 2-2 in the league. "I thought they play well off each other. Cam has picked up his defensive effort here the last two to three games. That's made them not only a good offensive backcourt, but a really good defensive backcourt.
"We really need those guys to play well for us to be successful."
Santiago scored 18 of his game-high 20 points in Saturday's road win at Wright State -- leading the Penguins back from a double-figure deficit.
"Coming into halftime we were pretty down," Morse said. "He was really the spark to bring us through in the second half. I got it going in the second half too because of what he was doing.
"He was there to have our back. He stepped up when it was most needed."
Santiago noticed Morse was doing the lion's share of scoring last season. That motivated Santiago in the offseason.
"I took that upon myself that I needed to work very hard in the offseason to give the kind of help he needed," Santiago said. "I knew every team's defensive scheme, they were going to throw their best defender at him. I needed to let him breathe. That's why I tried to up my scoring, so I could give him more space.
"Let other teams worry about Cisco now too. We can't only worry about Cam. I was trying to relieve the pressure off of him a little bit."
Santiago isn't shy about sacrificing his body during the game. You'll see him diving for the ball, hustling for almost every play.
"He's one of the hardest workers on the team," Morse said. "He'll put his life on the line for everybody on the team. That's something we need out of our point guard and one of our leaders on the team."
His playing style came from him parents.
"A lot of that came from my father and my mother," Santiago said. "I seen how hard they worked. They were doing other things. They were having jobs and paying bills. I think of how hard they worked to do that. I was doing something easy as playing basketball. Why not do everything I could and sacrifice when I need to sacrifice in order to help my team or do what is needed to motivate them in any way, shape or form?
"My high school coach (Sean O'Toole) really brought that out in me even more. His whole thing was, when I got to high school I was trying to play well. The whole thing with him is even if you make a mistake, he wanted you to play hard. If you mess up the play, he didn't care."
If the Penguins want to get through a difficult stretch of three games in five days with UIC in town on Saturday and a visit to Detroit on Monday, they'll need Morse and Santiago to take charge.
"At the end of the game, it's going to come down to us to make plays and create for our teammates, ourselves, along with getting stops on the defensive end and in transition," Morse said. "If we do those things, I feel like we'll come out with a win."