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High-octane matchup: YSU puts focus on defense as Wright State comes to town

Correspondent photo / Robert Hayes Youngstown State’s Dwayne Cohill drives to the basket during the Penguins matchup with Oakland on Friday at the Beeghly Center.

YOUNGSTOWN — There’s no doubt Youngstown State’s offense has operated at an elite level for nearly the entire 2022-23 season. In fact, at 81.7 points per conference game this season, nobody in the Horizon League scores more than the Penguins.

YSU (17-6, 9-3 Horizon League) will face an offense of similar caliber tonight, however, as the Wright State Raiders pay the Beeghly Center a visit (7 p.m., ESPN+. 570 AM WKBN).

Wright State (13-10, 6-6 Horizon League) is scoring 79.1 points per league game this year, and is capable of going toe-to-toe with the Penguins in terms of scoring.

That, YSU coach Jerrod Calhoun says, puts a premium on defending.

“We have to guard,” he said. “It’s going to come down to can we sit down, keep the ball in front of us? Can we guard them in the post? Can we guard pick and rolls? … We’ve got to get stops.”

That begins with stopping the impressive backcourt duo of sure-fire Horizon League First Teamer Trey Calvin and Amari Davis, who score 19.1 and 10.1 points per game, respectively.

Down low, Brandon Noel, who Calhoun says will win the league’s Freshman of the Year award, is scoring 12.8 points per game and adding 8.3 rebounds.

The Raiders aren’t an especially large threat from the perimeter — they sit at ninth in the Horizon League at 5.7 treys per game — and instead use their guards to attack the basket through the aforementioned pick-and-rolls and cuts, as well as through mid-range twos.

“They’re an elite cutting team. They’re one of the best cutting teams I’ve seen,” Calhoun noted.

He added, “They’re second in the country in two-point field goal distribution, so that means they’re living in the paint and they’re shooting a lot of mid-range twos. So that’s kind of their strength.”

When YSU has the ball, meanwhile, it will have to make possessions count. Wright State is third in the Horizon League in rebounding (36.1 per game) and second in defensive rebounds (26.2 per game), suggesting the Raiders are adept at limiting opponents to frequent one-shot possessions.

Noel is the leader in that department, providing a test for YSU forward Adrian Nelson, who says he’ll be tasked with defending the precocious redshirt freshman. In YSU’s 88-77 win at WSU back on Dec. 4, Noel posted 22 points and eight rebounds. In conference play, Noel is averaging a league-best 10.2 boards per game.

“Last game, he did real well when we played them, so I know that matchup is going to be on me — my responsibility,” Nelson said. “So just making sure I take him out of the game and stay out of foul trouble. He’s also a really great rebounder — I think he leads the league in rebounds — so that’s going to be a test for me.”

For Calhoun, it also increases the importance of shot selection.

“If you take bad shots, you can’t rebound it,” Calhoun said. “I constantly talk with our guys about how we want to create an advantage. So on offense, you want to create an advantage — that could be in transition, it could be advantage in the half-court, it could be on a baseline out of bounds, sideline out of bounds. … Most of our guys, if they’re open, they’re shooting the ball, so to be able to pursue that ball when the shot’s up, you want good shot selection and then really getting comfortable with one another throughout the season.”

Tonight’s matchup with WSU sets up a critical two-game homestand for the Penguins, who host Northern Kentucky on Saturday. The Penguins and Norse are two of the four teams presently tied for first place in the Horizon League alongside Cleveland State and Milwaukee. The Raiders, meanwhile, sit a game back of fifth place, which comes with a first-round bye in the conference tournament.

“There’s eight games left. We’ve got four at home, four on the road. We’re in a good position,” Calhoun said. “But there are three other teams in a really good position, too, so our kids have earned that right to be right there.

“Now, it’s about which team can continue to get better, which team can be mentally tough, which team can win the game and stay together and catch a few breaks along the way. All these games are certainly close games, but it’s exciting. It’s really, really exciting for our group.”

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