Youngstown State (6-9 overall and 2-3 in the Horizon League) has lost two straight games following a 66-55 setback at Wright State on Thursday night. Against the Raiders, YSU trailed 49-48 with just under eight minutes remaining before the Raiders scored 17 of the next 21 points to grab control of the game. John Barber and Byron Davis each scored 13 points to lead the Penguins. The big difference came at the free-throw line where YSU was 4-of-11 while Wright State was 15-of-22.

    Detroit (4-11 and 0-5) suffered its ninth straight loss falling to Cleveland State 74-64 at Calihan Hall on Thursday night. The Titans built a 13-point first-half advantage, but were unable to hold off the first-place Vikings. CSU won at Detroit for the first time in 21 tries. UDM was led by Chris Hayes, who scored 17 points, while Eulis Stephens and Jon Goode each contributed 16. The Titans are playing under interim head coach Kevin Mondro, who is filling in for Perry Watson after he took a medical leave of absence.

    Like Cleveland State, until Thursday, the Penguins have never won in Detroit. YSU is winless in 10 tries against the Titans in the Motor City. However the Guins, who trail the overall series 17-4, won two of three meetings last season. Both wins came at the Beeghly Center and each time YSU scored 82 points. The last came in the first round of the Horizon League Tournament when the Guins held on to win 82-80 at Beeghly.

• This is the 25th all-time meeting between YSU and Detroit. The Penguins have won four times, including two decisions last year at the Beeghly Center.

• In the six wins this year, YSU has averaged 77 points, shot 48.1 percent from the field, had 108 assists on 162 baskets and committed 77 turnovers.

• In the eight losses, YSU has averaged 56.3 points, shot 36.8 percent, had 104 assists on 183 baskets, 151 turnovers and shot 30.2 from 3-point range.

• The Penguins have attempted 176 free throws the past seven contests. In the first eight games, YSU attempted 132.

• The Guins are 5-0 this season when shooting better than 46 percent from the field.

• Senior guard Byron Davis has scored in double figures in a career-best 11 games this year. He had a team-high-tying 13 points at Wright State on Thursday.

• Senior John Barber has scored in double figures in 10 of the last 12 games. He had a team-high-tying 13 at Wright State.

• Junior forward Jack Liles has scored in double figures in eights of last 10 games. He scored 10 points at Wright State.

• Twice this year YSU has had five players score in double figures (Lock Haven, Robert Morris). Five times YSU has had at least four players reach double digits.

• All 14 players on the roster have scored and have a rebound while 11 have an assist.

• YSU has made at least 10 3-pointers on 10 occasions since Coach Slocum took over.

• YSU has won 14 straight games when leading at halftime. The last time the Guins lost when leading at half was at Canisius on Feb. 18, 2006. YSU was 9-0 when leading at half last year and is 6-0 this season when leading or tied.

• The Guins have won their last 12 games when shooting 50 percent and won their last seven when scoring 80 points.

• Barber will be playing his 102nd career game on Saturday while senior Dwight Holmes will appear in his 95th contest. Barber played in his 100th consecutive game

• Barber has scored 54 points in seven all-time games against the Titans.

• Davis has played in 102 career contests - 57 at New Mexico State and 45 at YSU.

• Saturday is Coach Slocum’s birthday.

    The Titans have dropped nine straight since winning at Eastern Michigan (72-68) on Nov. 28. Senior guard Jon Goode leads the Horizon League averaging 17.9 points per game. Goode had 16 against Cleveland State on Thursday.

    In the HL Tournament, Keston Roberts scored 20 of his career-high 31 points in the first half and hit a clutch bucket inside the final minute as Youngstown State held off Detroit 82-80.

    Roberts’ sizzling first half helped the Penguins build a 19-point first half lead before Detroit worked its way back and took the lead 65-64 with seven minutes remaining.

    Quin Humphrey hit the first of two free throws with 0.4 seconds remaining, but Brandon Bell’s shot from three-quarters court glanced off the side of the rim.

    In the regular season, Humphrey scored 36 points on 12-of-18 shooting from the field, including eight 3-pointers, to lead the Penguins to an 82-70 win. YSU trailed by as many as 10 points in the second half and 60-52 with 10:08 remaining. The Guins outscored the Titans 23-4 over the last six minutes of the game.

    Youngstown State watched Detroit scorch the nets in the first half and could never get back in the game losing 66-51 at Calihan Hall on Jan. 6, 2007.

    In the first half, YSU shot just 39.1 percent while the Titans made 55.6 percent (15-of-27), including 8-of-13 (61.5 percent) from behind the 3-point arc. Entering the game, Detroit was shooting 29.5 percent from 3-point range and averaged just five treys a game. Byron Davis led the Penguins effort by scoring 14 points while John Barber finished with 12.

    YSU is winless in 10 trips to Calihan Hall dating back to a December 1953 contest (the second year the facility was open). In the previous 19 meetings the Guins failed to score 80 points, but have done so in the past two meetings.

    Wright State used a 17-4 run in the final eight minutes of the second half to pull ahead of Youngstown State for a 66-55 victory on Thursday evening at the Nutter Center.

    The Penguins battled back from two seven-point deficits to get within one at 49-48 with 7:39 remaining. Wright State led just 57-52 with three minutes to go before Vaughn Duggins’ trey sparked a 9-0 run that sealed the win.

    Duggins hit only three 3-pointers on the night, but all three came at crucial times. The Raiders trailed 24-20 in the first half when the sophomore guard hit treys on back-to-back possessions to spark a 10-0 run that gave WSU a lead it would never lose.

    Byron Davis and John Barber scored 13 points apiece to lead YSU while Jack Liles finished with 10.

    The Penguins are 5-0 this year when shooting 46 percent or better from the field. In wins over Weber State (55.8 percent), Lock Haven (52), Saint Francis (46.3), UIC (50.0) and Loyola (46.5), YSU shot above 46 percent. The highest shooting percentage in a loss was 42.6 versus Robert Morris while the lowest in a win was 39.1 versus SRU.

    The Penguins have either been on from the line or way off.

In five games, YSU has shot 76.7 percent or better while in four others the Guins shot in the 60s. In six others, Youngstown State has shot 57.7 percent or below, including two in the 40s and one in the 30s.

    YSU shot a season-low 36.4 percent from the free-throw line at Wright State on Thursday making 4-of-11 attempts.

    Guard Byron Davis has scored in double figures 11 times this year and leads the team with two 20-point performances.

    Davis scored 20 points against Robert Morris (Dec. 17) and had a career-high 21 at Saint Francis (Nov. 28).

    He attempted a career-best 19 shots against RMU. For the year he has attempted double figures in shots on 12 occasions.

His 11 double-figure scoring games eclipsed his total of nine from last year.

    This year, Davis has been strong from the free-throw line making 49-of-64 attempts for a 76.6 percent clip. Last year, he made just 35-of-61 attempts, a 57.4 percentage. He was 6-of-6 against Loyola.

    In his career (New Mexico State and YSU) he has scored 799 points, making 101 3-pointers while dishing out 267 assists.

    Senior forward John Barber has scored in double figures in a career-best 12 games this season. On Monday, he was named the HL Player of the Week after scoring 42 points and grabbing 21 rebounds in wins over UIC and Loyola.

    Barber has double-figure scoring game streaks of six and four games this year. His previous career long streak was just two.

    In the past 13 games, he has scored 163 points (12.5 per game) while grabbing 87 rebounds (6.7 per contest). He has grabbed at least five rebounds in 12 games.

    For his career, Barber has scored 806 points while grabbing 473 rebounds. He will play his 102nd career game on Saturday when YSU visits Detroit.

    Freshman guard Vytas Sulskis scored a career-best 26 points against UIC. His effort tied for the third most by a Penguin freshman since 1980. Only Tim Jackson’s 32 and 31 point outings during the 1987-88 season were better than Sulskis’s effort.

    Against the Flames, he was 9-of-13 from the field, 4-of-6 from 3-point range and 4-of-7 from the free-throw line. He also had seven rebounds, two assists and a steal.

    In the past eight games he is 16-of-33 (48.5 percent) from 3-point range.

    For the year, he has made 23 3-pointers. The most by a freshman in school history is 31 by Mike Alcorn in 1990-91.

    YSU has shown spurts of playing well during different halves this season.

    In the first three games of the season, the Penguins had 126 first-half points compared to just 90 second-half points. Included in that total was a 60-point effort against Lock Haven, the Guins’ most since February 1992.

    Then in an eight-game stretch, the Guins totaled 216 points in the first half (27 points a half) and 292 in the first half (36.5 a half).

    Now in the past four games, YSU has scored 147 points in the first half and 98 in the second. The Guins had 53 against UIC and 42 versus Loyola in the first half.

    The Penguins have relied on seven players to handle the scoring duties this year. Of the 969 points scored, John Barber, Byron Davis, Jack Liles, Vance Cooksey, Vytas Sulskis, Mel Johnson and Dwight Holmes have contributed 906. Overall, 93.5 percent of YSU’s scoring goes through those seven.

    The Guins have had nine 30-point individual performances since Coach Slocum took over the program. In the previous 13 seasons, YSU had nine 30-point games. Last year, Quin Humphrey had three contests while Keston Roberts had two. The five in a season was the most since 1986-87.

    Guard Vance Cooksey leads the Penguins with 47 assists and 23 steals. Cooksey has had at least three assists on eight contests. He also has scored in double digits against UCLA, Weber State, Notre Dame and Robert Morris. He is averaging 3.1 assists and 1.5 steals per games.

    Senior forward Dwight Holmes has seen an increased role since the Robert Morris game.

    Entering that contest Holmes had played just 70 minutes and had 16 points and 17 rebounds. Since that time, Holmes has played 130 minutes in the last seven games. He has scored 35 points and grabbed 14 rebounds. He is 14-of-26 (53.8 percent) from the field in those contests.

    He played 25 minutes against RMU and UIC. At Wright State he had six points in 12 minutes of action.

    Junior guard Mel Johnson is the Penguins’ version of Vinnie Johnson. As the Guins’ sixth man, Johnson has scored 63 points, grabbed 37 rebounds, has 18 steals, 15 assists and five blocks. At Wright State on Thursday he had eight points, three boards, three assists, three steals and a blocked shot.

    Junior forward Jack Liles continues to provide a strong presence in the post.

    Liles leads the team with a 52.7 field-goal percentage making 68-of-129 shots. For the year, he is averaging 10.9 points and 5.6 rebounds per contest. He has scored in double figures 10 times, including eight of the last 10.

    He leads the team with 13 blocks and is fifth in YSU history with 68 career swats.