Staff photo / Greg Macafee Youngstown State freshman John Lovelace Jr. takes a jumpshot Saturday afternoon against Green Bay. Lovelace is a true freshman on the roster and is playing 14.2 minutes per game while averaging 4.5 points per game.

YOUNGSTOWN — Twenty-nine games later, the Horizon League regular season title comes down to perhaps the most important week of basketball in decades for Youngstown State.

YSU (22-7, 14-4 Horizon League) enters the final week of the regular season atop the league standings holding a one-game cushion with two games to play. Win out, and the Penguins can claim the title for themselves with no doubt or help.

For now, however, Youngstown State can clinch at least a share tonight as it visits Robert Morris (7 p.m., ESPN+, 570 AM WKBN).

“We’ve been plugging away at this thing for a long time,” YSU coach Jerrod Calhoun said. “A lot of work has been put into it, so we just want to finish this regular season out on a really high note. We’re going to have to play well. I think Robert Morris is playing as well as anybody in the league. … I think our prep has been good, but we’re going on the road and playing a really good team.”

Indeed, the Colonials (14-15, 9-9 Horizon League) are playing perhaps their best basketball of the season right now. After dropping three straight contests to Northern Kentucky, Wright State and Cleveland State, the last of which just a 2-point decision, RMU has won its last three. Those wins came over Purdue Fort Wayne, Green Bay and Milwaukee.

That win over UWM was an 80-60 shellacking last Saturday, and dropped the Panthers into third place in the Horizon League.

RMU is paced by Enoch Cheeks (16.1 points, 4.6 rebounds per game) and Kahliel Spear (15.3 points, 8.2 rebounds per game), two standouts Calhoun described as “all-league players.”

YSU forward Adrian Nelson says he’ll be tasked with guarding Spear, who scored eight points in YSU’s 78-56 win over RMU on Jan. 5.

“Just taking him out of the game. I feel like I did a real good job with him in the first game here. And then just taking away their shooters and their guard play — I feel like if we take those out of the game, we have a great chance of winning,” Nelson noted.

Josh Corbin is scoring 10.7 points per game, while Michael Green III has surged recently, scoring at least 13 points in each of RMU’s last three games, including a 24-point day at Purdue Fort Wayne on Feb. 12.

But where Calhoun has seen the biggest difference from the Colonials since the first meeting between the teams is on defense. RMU is giving up just 66.4 points per game in Horizon League play, the second-best mark in the conference behind Northern Kentucky’s 61.8. The Colonials also sit at second in blocks per game (4.33).

“They’re doing a great job pressuring the ball, being in the gaps, being connected. They’re playing at a high level on both sides of the ball,” he said.

And perhaps making things more difficult for YSU is that Robert Morris still has plenty to play for itself. The Colonials will need some help, but wins this week over Youngstown State and IUPUI plus some other results elsewhere could land Robert Morris a fifth place finish in the standings, which brings a first-round bye in the Horizon League Tournament.

For the Penguins, however, the focus remains on the here and now.

“Staying humble. We know that we’re at the top, but we’re not getting too ahead of ourselves, and we’re just staying humble and working every day,” Nelson said. “We know that we can never take any game too lightly.”

But, of course, the excitement is building as YSU closes in on history.

“I think they want to make history,” Calhoun said of his players. “I think they understand what’s in front of them, and I think they understand that it’s going to be hard. The hardest thing to do is finish it. So we have to play really good defense. We have to limit them to one shot, and we have to get out and run and get easy baskets. And just stay focused. You don’t want to look too far ahead, just be in the moment.”

jwhetzel@tribtoday.com