|
The Youngstown State men's basketball team will host Oakland in its first Division I postseason tournament game in the first round of the CollegeInsider.com Tournament, Tuesday, March 19. Tipoff is set for 7:05 p.m. EST at the Beeghly Center and the game can be heard on 570 WKBN-AM and iHeartRadio. The game can also be viewed live at www.watchcollegeinsider.com.
Last Time Out
• The Penguins lost in the second round of the Horizon League Championship to Wright State, 66-59, on March 8.
• Junior Kamren Belin led the Penguins with 20 points.
• Senior Damian Eargle had 13 points and junior Kendrick Perry returned to score 11 points against the Raiders.
The Oakland Series
• This will be the ninth meeting between Youngstown State and Oakland and the first in 10 years.
• The Golden Grizzlies lead the all-time series 5-3, including the last meeting, 70-67, on Dec. 20, 2003.
• The Penguins last win over Oakland was a 75-70 victory on Feb. 22, 2001, at the Beeghly Center.
Scouting Oakland
• Oakland (16-16) finished fourth in the Summit League with a 10-6 record.
• OU is making its fifth consecutive postseason appearance, advancing to the CIT Final Four in 2012.
• Leading the Golden Grizzlies is junior Travis Bader with 21.9 points per game.
• Bader leads the country with 134 3-pointers made and has converted a three in an NCAA-best 52 straight games.
A Win Will
• Improve YSU to 18-15 overall and mark YSU's first 18-win season since 2000-01.
• Mark YSU's fourth win over Oakland.
• Mark YSU's first postseason tournament win in the school's Division I history.
• Mark YSU's first postseason tournament win since March 8, 1977.
• Mark YSU's 12th win at home this season.
• Mark Head Coach Jerry Slocum's 673rd career victory and his 92nd at Youngstown State.
• Mark YSU's 1,026th victory in the program's history.
The CIT First Round
• The fifth annual CIT begins Tuesday, March 19 with eight games on the schedule.
• Eight more games will be played on Wednesday, March 20.
• Below is the field for the 2013 CIT:
Tuesday, March 19
EKU (24-9) at Gardner Webb (21-12) 7 p.m.
Fairfield (19-15) at Kent State (20-13) 7 p.m.
Savannah St. (19-14) at ECU (18-12) 7 p.m.
Rider (18-14) at Hartford (17-13) 7 p.m.
Oakland (16-16) at YSU (17-15) 7:05 p.m.
Boston (17-12) at Loyola MD (21-11) 7:30 p.m.
Tenn. St (18-14) at Evansville (18-14) 8 p.m.
North Dakota (16-16) at UNI (18-14) 8 p.m.
Wednesday, March 20
Elon (21-11) at Canisius (18-13) 7:00 p.m.
Green Bay (18-15) at Bradley (16-16) 8 p.m.
South Ala. (17-12) at Tulane (19-14) 8 p.m.
Chicago State (11-21) at UIC (17-15) 8 p.m.
ORU (18-14) @ UT-Arlington (19-13) 8:30 p.m.
High Point (17-13) at UC-Irvine (20-15) 10 p.m.
Cal Poly (18-13) at Weber St. (26-6) 10 p.m.
Thursday, March 21
Air Force (17-13) at Hawaii (17-14) 12 a.m.
Late-Season Injury Bug
• Youngstown State was been hit hard twice by the injury bug late in the season.
• Senior Damian Eargle missed two games with a broken nose (UWM and UWGB).
• Junior Kendrick Perry had a streak of 88 straight games played snapped on Feb. 23 against Central Michigan and missed four straight games.
• The Penguins have not been at full-strength over the last seven games dating back to Feb. 10 against UIC.
Starting Fresh
• In 2011-12, the Penguins used the same starting lineup in all 31 games.
• This year, the Penguins have used six different starting lineups in 32 games.
• The game against Oakland will mark the fourth different line up in the last eight games due to the Penguins' injuries since Feb. 10.
Most Home Wins Since 1994-95
• The win over Loyola on March 5, marked the 11th home win of the season for the Penguins.
• It's the most wins since the 1994-95 team won 11.
• The last time Youngstown State won more than 11 games at home was in 1984-85 (12-1).
• Over the last two years, the Penguins own a 21-8 home record for a winning percentage of .724.
Allen Nearing 1,000
• Senior Blake Allen is just 22 points shy of becoming the 35th player in school history to score 1,000 points in a career.
• Allen has scored 972 points in his career for an average of 10.5 points per game.
• Over the last five games, Allen has averaged 14.2 points per game.
Back-to-Back 16
• The Penguins' 86-75 win over Central Michigan on Feb. 23 marked their 16th win of the season.
• It also marks the first time since 1984 and 1985 that Youngstown State has won at least 16 games in consecutive seasons.
• The Penguins won 18 games in 1983-84 and 19 in 1984-85.
• The Penguins have won 33 games over the last two seasons, including 17 this season.
Penguins 2K
• Youngstown State's 2,245 points this season marks the fourth straight year it has scored at least 2,000 points in a season.
• That point total is also the highest since the Penguins set a school record with 2,388 points in 1990-91.
• It's also the fifth time in the last eight years the Penguins has surpassed the 2,000-point mark.
• The Penguins are also averaging 70.2 points per game, the most since 71.1 ppg in the 2000-01 season.
• The last time the Penguins averaged at least 70 points per game was in 2000-01.
Eargle and Single-Season Blocks
• Senior Damian Eargle owns the YSU career blocks record with 302.
• He also ranks second, third and fourth on the single-season blocks list.
• Last season, he moved into second with 116 blocks.
• His 95 this year are third and his 91 in 2010-11 are fourth.
|
