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Penguins show fight

YSU takes game to No. 25 WVU in close loss

By John Vargo 6 min read

YOUNGSTOWN -- Naz Bohannon bull-rushed through the West Virginia interior twice in the first minute-and-a-half, scoring both times.

The 6-foot-6 Lorain native spearheaded an interior dominance, following up a defensive-minded 20 minutes in which the Youngstown State University men's basketball team was on the cusp of school history, beating a nationally-ranked team for the first time.

"We didn't take the fight to them," WVU coach Bob Huggins said. "They took the fight to us."

The No. 25-ranked Mountaineers began to siphon off the Penguins' inside presence and tighten up their half-court defense to eventually pull away from YSU at the Covelli Centre, 75-64.

YSU had a 42-35 lead after Bohannon's baskets. The daunting presence of two former area standouts, 6-foot-10 sophomore Derek Culver (Warren G. Harding) and 6-9 freshman Oscar Tshiebwe (Kennedy Catholic) pushed WVU past a feisty Penguins team. They combined for 34 points and 13 rebounds as the Mountaineers (10-1) started to be as dominant as the vocal West Virginia-based crowd, which accounted for a good portion of the 3,614 in attendance, chanting back and forth over makeshift Covelli Centre floor.

West Virginia went on an 11-2 run after the Bohannon baskets. Garrett Covington's 1 of 2 from the foul line gave YSU (7-6) a brief lead at 47-46, but it was the Mountaineers who were mostly in control in the final 17 minutes of this rare ballgame at the Covelli Centre. Covington had 11 points.

It was a win for West Virginia as it heads into its last non-conference game Dec. 29 at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in Cleveland to take on Ohio State.

Huggins wasn't pleased of what he saw from his team Saturday. The effort wasn't there as YSU crashed the boards for a 39-38 advantage with Bohannon muscling his way in for a game-high 13 rebounds.

"That is Youngstown," said YSU coach Jerrod Calhoun, who worked for Huggins at Cincinnati and West Virginia. "That's what coach Huggins taught me moving up in the coaching ranks. You don't go into a game and not outwork your opponent. You don't go into practice and not outwork your opponent. The way you develop as a good player and a good program and a good team is you develop habits. You've got to be nasty and you've got to be tough. Those are things we talked about with our guys for three years.

"I told them after the game they not only represented Youngstown State and their families, but really what our community is all about -- being tough and going to work. I was so proud of them."

YSU dominated the first 20 minutes by doing everything the Penguins have inflicted in their seven victories -- constantly driving toward the basket to score or be fouled and locking down the opposition.

"We wanted to put them in a lot of pick and rolls," Calhoun said. "You don't go inside on 6-8, 6-9 guys without moving bodies.

"Our guards did a nice job of making plays for others. That's what it's about. We felt like we could win the game going in. We thought all the stars aligned, hometown game, 1 o'clock start. They play Ohio State next. We were here to win the game. We weren't into moral victories by any means. More importantly, we hope the city rallies around our players. These kids deserve really good crowds at home."

The gritty Penguins hung with WVU in the early going, but most probably thought that early surge wouldn't last as the two were tied multiple times in the first 10 to 15 minutes.

Jelani Simmons' 1 of 2 from the line with 7 minutes left before intermission gave YSU a 26-25 lead. It only grew from there as Darius Quisenberry, as he's done so many times before in his young career with YSU, drove to the hoop with reckless abandon, sacrificing his body for two points with 2:10 left in the first half to give the Penguins a 34-28 lead.

Quisenberry, who had a game-high 22 points, had the ball in his hands once again. One of the Horizon League's leading scorers, who has a knack for clutch situations, hit a turnaround, fade-away jumper as time expired in the first half for 38-35 YSU lead.

"Quisenberry was really, really good," Huggins said.

The teams' 3-point and field-goal percentages almost mirrored one another throughout.

Free throws, that was a different story. Olamide Pedersen, who played his first game of the year after being out with his second hand injury, drew a technical foul for vehemently disputing a call. West Virginia missed both of the subsequent free throws. It was a recurring theme as the Mountaineers were a dismal 10 of 20 from the foul line, while YSU was 17 of 24.

"We were horrible from the free-throw line," Huggins said. "That's generally an indication that you're not fully engaged."

The Penguins had another couple of surges in them as Michael Akuchie's 3-pointer cut the WVU lead to 58-56 with 7:38 left.

Quisenberry made two free throws after an offensive putback attempt with 2:14 remaining as YSU trailed 67-64.

He noticed his team taking some ill-advised shots in the second half.

"I think we rushed it a bit in the second half with their pressure." Quisenberry said. "I think we needed to slow down. I think we still got some good looks. Some of them went in and out."

Quisenberry's missed layup almost 30 seconds later triggered an outlet pass by Culver to Tshiebwe for a three-point play. Culver had seven pinpoint assists, while the former Kennedy Catholic proved too much in the second half.

Tshiebwe had 19 points and six rebounds, while Culver had 14 points and seven boards. Jermaine Haley had 11 points, while Taz Sherman and Miles McBride added 10 each.

"He's 6-9, 260 pounds," YSU coach Jerrod Calhoun said of Tshiebwe. "He's strong. He moves bodies. He's probably the strongest guy in college basketball. He makes layup. He makes dunks. That's what he does. That's what he's going to get paid to do.

"Our plan was to double him and he had 19. Maybe we should've tripled him? Our guards did a great job trying to get the ball out of his hands."

Next Saturday, the Penguins begin a three-game road trip to start Horizon League play, beginning with a noon tipoff at IUPUI.

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