Tribune Chronicle / John Vargo YSU’s Devin Haygood goes up for one of many two-handed dunks on the night as the Penguins throttled Franciscan, 134-46, Tuesday night at the Beeghly Center in Youngstown.

YOUNGSTOWN — An hour ride home to Youngstown mired in despair. The disappointment about embarrassing a blue-collar city with such a poor second-half performance.

Jerrod Calhoun didn’t envision this start, neither did his team.

It started at Monday’s practice, after an early-morning film session reviewing the team’s blowout loss at the hands of NCAA Tournament team Kent State on Saturday — giving up 111 points.

“I was so angry that my team gave up so many points,” Calhoun said. “I’m a Bob Huggins disciple. We pride ourselves on getting stops. We pride ourselves on toughness. We didn’t see that the other night in the second half.”

Youngstown State newcomers Noe Anabir, Michael Akuchie, Naz Bohannon, Jaylen Benton and Garrett Covington remembered it well. They edged out an experienced lineup during a Red-Black intersquad scrimmage on Monday.

Their reward, besides not running sprints, was starting in Tuesday’s record-setting 134-46 victory over NCAA Division III team Franciscan University from Steubenville.

“Just trying to bounce back, not feel sorry for ourselves,” Akuchie said. “I feel like our team is a reflection of coach. We’re gritty. We’re tough. You might think we’re nasty or whatever. We’re going to play hard and that’s what we did tonight.”

Three minutes into Tuesday’s game, the team that wore the black jerseys in the scrimmage, which went down to a narrow defeat on Monday, came in; Braun Hartfield, Cameron Morse, Francisco Santiago, Tyree Robinson and Devin Haygood took the floor.

It was almost like a line change in hockey, but to play YSU’s up-tempo style, the quick change is more than necessary.

Now you’re thinking, wasn’t Calhoun going to get teams like Franciscan — Division II and III teams — off the YSU schedule? Long story short, IUPUI was supposed to be the team’s opener and with the Jaguars joining the Horizon League this year it left YSU scrambling for an opponent.

So YSU took its anger out on the Barons (0-1) as the Penguins set single-game records in most points, steals (37) and margin of victory (88). YSU (1-1) had the most field-goal attempts at 104 and second most with 56 made.

“You certainly don’t want to beat a team that bad,” Calhoun said. “That’s not what we’re in the business for, but I also think our players are so young. They need to have a little success tonight.”

YSU is in the business of improving its schedule. The Penguins next year are playing at West Virginia. The Mountaineers signed a three-year deal with YSU with games for 2018 and 2020 in Morgantown and one at the Covelli Centre in 2019.

“I think it’ll be the biggest college basketball game in the city of Youngstown that the Penguins have been involved with,” Calhoun said.

Calhoun said he wants to add another Mid-American Conference team to its slate for 2018-19, along with other Division I teams prior to the Horizon League schedule.

“I don’t want to play D-II and D-III,” he said. “It’s not in my DNA.”

What is in his DNA is running an up-tempo offense and intense defense.

Robinson and Morse pressured a Franciscan player outside the 3-point arc. The squeeze on the Barons player was too much to bear as he threw an errant pass into the hands of Hartfield. The YSU sophomore wing found open space, dribbled toward the empty basket, rose up, gripped the ball with his right hand, secured it with his left and slammed the ball with both hands.

There were plenty of dunks all around, even a couple off Franciscan’s 49 turnovers which resulted in thunder dunks from Akuchie, Haygood and Robinson — usual suspects for power moves like that in practices. Those turnovers resulted in 83 points.

Calhoun stresses “what you have to worry about is getting better today.”

Akuchie, who had a game-high 28 points and nine rebounds, drove to the basket and went to the ground early in the second half. You would think that’s a normal play.

When a player goes to the ground, the Penguins are taught to swarm and help up their fallen teammate. They did that and huddled after the play — another thing this team is taught.

What YSU learned Tuesday is both sides of Monday’s scrimmage contributed. Covington and Robinson each had 16 points, while Hartfield added 14. Benton and Haygood each had 10.

“We know we have to get a lot better,” Akuchie said.

It starts with conditioning. YSU players were visibly tired, just as they’ve been in practices. It befuddles Calhoun, who prided himself as being one of those intense players when he was a walk-on at Cleveland State and playing high school ball at Villa Angela-St. Joseph.

“I was so upset with our conditioning level,” he said. “As a head coach, I didn’t do a good enough job of getting our guys in shape. We’ll mix in some zone.”

One thing his team won’t change is their attitude, one of pride for Youngstown.

“These people are paying money to watch you play basketball,” Calhoun said. “You have to take great pride in that. You have to take great pride in your city. They’re working hard every day with their job and they’re paying money to watch you play.

“You have a job to play really, really hard and passionate and represent our university really, really well. I thought they did that tonight.”