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The Youngstown State men's and women's basketball teams made positive strides last week as they continued their quests to improve their positioning in the upcoming Horizon League tournaments during this pandemic-affected season.
Both teams swept league opponents last weekend, the men winning two overtime games at Robert Morris and the women taking care of winless Purdue Fort Wayne at the Beeghly Center.
This weekend, the men (10-10 overall, 6-10 Horizon) are back home today and Saturday to face Purdue Fort Wayne (6-11, 5-11). Both games start at 5 p.m. at the Beeghly Center and both will be broadcast on WKBN 570-AM and ESPN-plus.
The women (8-4, 8-4) travel to Indianapolis to meet IUPUI (11-4, 9-3), the league's preseason favorite. Those games are at 6 p.m. today and Saturday and both will be broadcast on WNIO 1390-AM and ESPN-plus.
At this point, both Penguin teams are in position to have a first-round home game in their respective league tournaments, but both are striving for a first-round bye into the quarterfinals.
Because of the COVID-19 pandemic and its effect on schedules, the league has put together a ranking formula which uses league winning percentage, strength of schedule, weighting road wins vs. home wins and number of league games played.
In that formula, the YSU men currently are in fifth place in the 12-team league and the women are seventh out of 11. On the men's side, the top four regular-season teams get first-round byes. For the women, since Detroit Mercy has opted out, the first five teams automatically advance to the quarterfinals.
Coach Jerrod Calhoun's men's team welcomed back junior guard Darius Quisenberry last week after he was out since December with an ankle injury. He averaged 20.5 points in the two wins at Robert Morris.
He got plenty of help from seniors Naz Bohannon at 16.5 points per game, Garrett Covington at 12.5 and Michael Akuchie at 12 points per game. Akuchie also set a single-game record for a league game when he grabbed 24 rebounds.
Purdue Fort Wayne ranks third in the nation in 3-point shooting at 40.4 percent and is 15th in overall field goal percentage at 50.1 percent. However, the Mastodons rank ninth in the league standings and have lost six in a row.
Fort Wayne is led by Jarred Godfrey at 16 points per game and Jalon Pipkins at 12.8 ppg.
Just like the Penguin men, coach John Barnes' women's team has a quartet of players who provide scoring balance.
Freshman Nneka Obiazor, who earned her third league Freshman of the Week honors last weekend, and seniors Mary Dunn, Chelsea Olson and McKenah Peters all are averaging between 14.5 and 10.3 points per game. All four rank in the top 20 in the conference in scoring.
Despite their solid record and preseason status, the IUPUI women are fifth in the league standings.
Next weekend, Feb. 19-20, the two YSU teams will play doubleheaders at Beeghly Center, with the women facing Cleveland State at 2 p.m. both days, and the men going against IUPUI at 5 p.m. on the two days.