The Youngstown State men’s basketball team returns to the Beeghly Center for two straight games beginning with a contest against Detroit on Thursday night. Tipoff is set for 7:35 p.m. following the women’s game against Green Bay. The games will be carried live in Youngstown on 570 WKBN and on tape delay on Fox 17/62 and MyYTV.

    Youngstown State (7-15 overall and 3-9 in the Horizon League) has not won since beating the Titans in Detroit on Jan. 12. YSU lost for sixth consecutive time after Saturday’s 86-72 defeat at UIC on Saturday night. Vytas Sulskis scored 18 points while Jack Liles had 16 and Byron Davis added 10.

    Detroit (5-16 and 1-10) snapped a 13-game losing streak by beating Milwaukee last Thursday. The Titans came up just short last Saturday losing 66-64 to Green Bay. Jon Goode scored 21 points and the Titans, who trailed by 10 points early in the second half, rallied to take a six-point lead. But Codero Barkley’s basket with 2.4 seconds left proved to be the game winner for the Phoenix.

    Earlier this season, the Penguins defeated the Titans 70-66 for their first ever win at Calihan Hall on Jan. 12. John Barber scored 22 points, Sulskis scored 18 points and Davis added 17. The Guins made a season-high-tying 11 3-pointers in the contest.

    YSU has won three straight meetings against Detroit, including two wins at the Beeghly Center last year. The Penguins beat the Titans 82-70 during the regular season before holding on for an 82-80 win in the first round of the Horizon League Tournament.

    The Penguins play host to Wright State on Saturday night at 7 o’clock.

• This is the 23rd all-time meeting between YSU at Detroit. The Penguins have won the past three games, their longest winning streak in the series.

• YSU is 41-of-48 from the free-throw line (85.4 percent) the past three games. The Guins were 17-of-21 at UIC, 8-of-10 at Loyola and 16-of-17 at Green Bay.

• The Guins’ 29 3-point attempts against the Flames were a season high. The 29 3-pointers tied for the third most in a game in school history.

• Against Detroit, the Penguins have made

51-of-122 (41.8 percent) 3-point attempts the past six games. YSU was 11-of-28 at Calihan Hall earlier this year.

• YSU is 5-2 when making at least seven 3-pointers in a game.

• YSU had won 15 straight games when leading at halftime, but has now dropped its last two consecutive when leading at the break (Valpo and Green Bay).

• The Guins have won 12 of their last 14 games when shooting 50 percent and won their last seven when scoring 80 points.

• In the seven wins, YSU has averaged 76 points, shot 47.8 percent from the field, had 128 assists on 189 baskets, committed 87 turnovers and shot 39.8 percent from 3-point range.

• YSU has made at least 10 3-pointers on 11 occasions under Coach Slocum.

• Senior guard Byron Davis has scored in double figures in a career-best 18 games.

• Senior forward John Barber has scored in double figures 17 times this season. He had 23 career double-figure point games entering the year.

• Freshman guard Vytas Sulskis became the first player to lead the team in scoring (18), rebounding (seven) and assists (five) in the same game this year on Saturday at UIC.

• Twice this year YSU has had five players score in double figures (Lock Haven, Robert Morris).

• Barber will be playing his 109th career game on Thursday while senior Dwight Holmes will appear in his 103rd contest.

• Davis has played in 109 career contests - 57 at New Mexico State and 52 at YSU.

• Holmes has made 14 consecutive free-throw attempts. Sulskis has made 11-of-12 since going 1-of-6 at Milwaukee.

    Detroit played well last week splitting a pair of games with Milwaukee and Green Bay. The Titans, who had lost 13 straight, beat the Panthers 72-61 on Jan. 31 before suffering a late 66-64 loss to Green Bay on Feb. 2. UDM is 1-7 on the road this year with its lone win coming at Eastern Michigan.

    In the Horizon League Tournament on Feb. 27, 2007, 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 to advance.

    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.

    Senior John Barber scored a game-high 22 points and senior Byron Davis added 17 as the Detroit natives helped lead the Youngstown State men’s basketball team to a 70-66 win over Detroit at Calihan Hall.

    YSU appeared to be cruising towards a victory owning a 11-point lead with just under three minutes remaining.

    Leading 67-56 after a breakaway dunk by Barber with 2:48 remaining Detroit scored the next eight points to get within 67-64 with 27 seconds remaining.

    Vance Cooksey calmly made two free throws to make the lead to 69-64 with 23 seconds left. Woody Payne cut the deficit back to three with 17.6 seconds left.

    On their next possession, the Penguins were able to melt 15 seconds off the clock before the Titans were able to foul. Barber sank one free throw with 2.6 seconds left.

    Youngstown State has beaten the Titans more times in the last three meetings (three) then it did in the previous 19 (two). YSU has scored more than 70 points in each of the past three contests.

    Youngstown State suffered an 86-72 loss to UIC on Saturday night at the UIC Pavilion. The Penguins cut a 14-point halftime deficit to six with just under 14 minutes remaining, but that was as close as they could get.

    Vytas Sulskis led the Penguins with 18 points, all in the second half. Jack Liles had 16 and Byron Davis scored 10. Leading the way for UIC was Josh Mayo, who scored a game-high 21 points. Mayo was 5-of-7 from the field, 4-of-5 from behind the 3-point line and 7-of-8 from the free-throw line.

    Trailing 48-33 early in the second, the Guins scored 12 of the next 15 points to get within 51-45 with 13:53 left on a Liles layup. Mayo answered the Penguins’ run by drilling back-to-back 3-pointers. Robert Bush’s layup made the scored 59-45 with 12:19 left.

    YSU was only able to get within 11 points the remainder of the contest.

    Guard Byron Davis has scored in double figures 18 times while scoring 20-or-more points on four occasions. He had nine double-figure scoring games last year.

    Davis scored a career-high 23 points against Valparaiso on Jan. 17. On Jan. 24, he finished with 22 at Milwaukee. He had 21 points at Saint Francis (Nov. 28) and 20 against Robert Morris (Dec. 17).

    Against Valpo, he set a career high by making 10 shots. He tied his career high making four 3-pointers at UWM.

    In his career (New Mexico State and YSU) he has scored 917 points, making 115 3-pointers while dishing out 280 assists.

    Senior forward John Barber has scored in double figures in 17 games. He had picked up his eighth career double-double and fourth of the season with 19 points and 11 rebounds at Loyola last Thursday.

    In the past 20 games, he has scored 264 points (13.2 per game) while grabbing 144 rebounds (7.2 per contest). He has grabbed at least five rebounds in 19 games.

    For his career, Barber has scored 907 points while grabbing 530 rebounds. He had 22 points at Detroit this year.

    Freshman guard Vytas Sulskis has set a freshman school record by making 34 3-pointers this season. The previous best was 31 held by Mike Alcorn in 1990-91. Sulskis is 34-of-85 from 3-point range for an impressive 40.0 percent conversion rate.

    Sulskis has scored in double figures 10 times this season, including a career-best 26 points against UIC on Jan. 3. His effort against the Flames tied for the third most by a Penguin freshman since 1980. Only Tim Jackson’s 32 and 31 point outings in 1987-88 season were better.

    At UIC last Saturday, Sulskis had 18 points, seven rebounds and five assists.

    In the past four games, he has scored 54 points and grabbed 22 boards.

    Freshman guard Vance Cooksey is tied for the team lead with 60 assists and leads the Guins with 29 steals. After starting 16 of the first 17 games, he has come off the bench the last five games.

    Cooksey has scored in double digits against UCLA, Weber State, Notre Dame, Robert Morris and at Loyola where he had 11 points.

    In the final five minutes, Cooksey is 24-of-27 (88.9 percent) from the free-throw line.

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

    Liles, who has come off the bench the past three games, is shooting 53.9 percent from the field. He has made 96-of-178 shots from the field. For the year, he is averaging 10.7 points and 4.5 rebounds per contest. He has scored in double figures 14 times, including 12 of the last 17 games.

    He has attempted double figures in shots eight times this season. Liles leads the team with 18 blocked shots and ranks fourth in school history with 73 career swats.

    Senior forward Dwight Holmes had a career-best 19 points at Loyola last Thursday. Holmes, whose previous career high was 12 at Duquesne on Nov. 13, 2007, was 7-of-9 from the field and 5-of-5 from the free-throw line. He also played a career-best 32 minutes. Holmes has started the last three games for YSU after starting 23 times last year.

    He has seen an increased role since the Robert Morris game on Dec. 17. Entering that contest Holmes had played just 70 minutes and had 16 points and 17 rebounds.

    Since that time, Holmes has played 252 minutes in the last 14 games. He has scored 78 points and grabbed 30 rebounds in those games.

    Junior guard Mel Johnson is the Penguins’ version of Vinnie Johnson. As the sixth man, Johnson has scored 69 points, grabbed 49 rebounds, has 24 steals, 23 assists and nine blocks.

    Mikko Niemi has started the last five games at the point guard spot for the Penguins.

    On Saturday at UIC, Niemi scored a career-high eight points. Against the Flames, he made three field goals, including two 3-pointers. He also attempted a career-best seven shots, six of which were from behind the arc. He has played double figures in minutes in 11 of the last 12 games.

    The Penguins have been extremely sharp at the free-throw line the last three games. YSU has made 41 of its last 48 attempts from the charity stripe. Nine times this year, the Guins have shot better than 76 percent, but on nine other occasions, YSU has shot below 60 percent, including two 30-percent efforts.

    The Penguins will play at Buffalo on Feb. 23 in a matchup created by the O’Reilly ESPNU BracketBusters. YSU owns a 13-10 all-time series lead over the Bulls. UB won the most recent meeting - 86-66 - at Alumni Arena on Dec. 6, 2003.

As part of the contract, the Penguins are supposed to play host to the Bulls during the 2008-09 season.

    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, including a 60-point effort against Lock Haven, the most since February 1992.

    In an eight-game stretch (Nov. 24-Dec. 29), the Guins totaled 216 points in the first half and 292 in the second half.

    From Jan. 3-12 (five games) YSU had scored 187 points (37.4) in the first half and 128 (25.6) in the second. In the most recent six games, YSU has scored 163 points (27.2) in the first half and 234 (39) in the second stanza.

    The Penguins have relied on seven players to handle the scoring duties this year. Of the 1,436 points scored, John Barber, Byron Davis, Jack Liles, Vance Cooksey, Vytas Sulskis, Mel Johnson and Dwight Holmes have contributed 1,386. Overall, 96.5 percent of YSU’s scoring goes through those seven.

    The Penguins play host to Wright State on Saturday night at the Beeghly Center. Tipoff is set for 7:05 p.m.