Loyola (7-13 and 3-7) pulled off a come-from-behind 65-63 at Valparaiso on Saturday. The Ramblers trailed 63-57 with just under two minutes remaining, but hung in the game and earned the victory on J.R. Blount’s basket with four seconds remaining. Blount finished with 19 in the contest while his winning layup gave him 1,001 career points.

    The Penguins defeated the Ramblers 71-61 at the Beeghly Center on Jan. 5. However, YSU has won just one time since dropping six of its last seven contests. In the Jan. 5 contest, Loyola made seven more field goals, but the Guins made five more 3-pointers and were 23-of-30 from the free-throw line while LU was 4-of-7. YSU held an 18-point halftime advantage, but the Ramblers tied the game midway through the second half.

    YSU is at UIC (10-10 and 4-5) on Saturday night at the UIC Pavilion.

• This is the 19th all-time meeting between YSU and Loyola. The winning team in the past 10 games has scored at least 71 points. In only two of the 18 contests (YSU wins) have both teams failed to score 70-or-more points.

• In nine wins against Loyola, YSU is averaging 75.7 points per game. In nine defeats to the Ramblers, the Guins are averaging 65.9 per contest.

• YSU shot 94.1 percent from the free-throw line at Green Bay making 16-of-17 shots. The last time the Guins shot at least 94 percent from the line was a 10-of-10 performance against Green Bay on Jan. 5, 2006.

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

• The Guins are 6-2 this season when shooting better than 46 percent from the field.

• 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 13 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 had three different starting lineups in the last four games. The Guins had the same starting lineup in 15 of the first 16 games.

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

• Senior guard Byron Davis has scored in double figures in a career-best 16 games this year. He had 16 points at Green Bay.

• Senior forward John Barber has scored in double figures 16 times this season. He had 23 double-figure point games entering the year.

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

• Barber will be playing his 107th career game on Thursday while senior Dwight Holmes will appear in his 101st contest.

• Davis has played in 107 career contests - 57 at New Mexico State and 50 at YSU.

    Loyola is 5-5 at home this season, however three of those losses have been by six points or less. The Ramblers lost their last home contest by a 53-52 margin to Wright State on Jan. 19. J.R. Blount leads three players averaging in double figures. Blount is averaging 15.9 points per contest while Leon Young is averaging 12.1 and Justin Cerasoli is at 11.4 per contest.

    Quin Humphrey scored 23 points and Keston Roberts finished with 18, but a rough first half proved to be too much to overcome as Youngstown State suffered an 80-68 loss to Loyola at the Gentile Center on Jan. 29, 2007.

    Loyola made 20-of-32 attempts (62.5 percent) in the first half while YSU made just 10-of-33 attempts (30.3 percent).

YSU never led in the contest. Trailing 28-21 at the 5:37 mark of the first half, the Guins were outscored 16-3 the rest of the period as Loyola grabbed a 44-24 lead.

    In the second half, the Penguins made a surge cutting a 24-point deficit to 12 at the final margin.

    Youngstown State used an impressive first-half shooting performance and staved off a Loyola comeback bid for a 71-61 win on Jan. 5 at the Beeghly Center.

    Four Penguins reached double figures led by Byron Davis’ 19 points and John Barber’s 18 points. Jack Liles finished with 12 points while Vytas Sulskis added 11.

    Loyola erased an 18-point halftime deficit scoring 23 of the first 28 points of the second half tying the game at 47. Leading 56-54 with 5:38 left, YSU scored 12 of the next 14 points to seal the victory.

    Youngstown State’s victory earlier this month tied the all-time series at nine wins each. Both teams own 7-2 marks on their home floors. In Chicago, the Ramblers have won two straight games and seven of the last eight. The Guins need to score a lot to win as LU has at least 71 points the last nine meetings at the Gentile Center.

    A solid first-half effort and a 16-of-17 performance from the free-throw line was almost enough, but Youngstown State suffered a 66-58 defeat to Green Bay at the Resch Center on Saturday afternoon.

    The Penguins built a 33-24 first half lead. However, the Phoenix went on a 20-4 run to take a 44-37 lead early in the second half.

    YSU regrouped and was able to get within 46-45 with 12:17 remaining in the contest. Vytas Sulskis made the first of two free throws to cut the deficit to one, but missed the second, YSU’s only miss from the Charity stripe the entire game.

    Again, the Guins crept within 52-51 with 7:08 on a three-point play by Byron Davis. Then Green Bay clamped down defensively holding the Guins scoreless for the next 5:16 to earn its second straight win. In the meantime, the Phoenix scored six straight points to seize control.

    Guard Byron Davis has scored in double figures 16 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. 17, 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 893 points, making 115 3-pointers while dishing out 279 assists.

    Senior forward John Barber has scored in double figures in a team-high 16 games.

    He had picked up his seventh career double-double and third of the season with 16 points and 11 boards at UWM last Thursday.

    In the past 18 games, he has scored 236 points (13.1 per game) while grabbing 126 rebounds (7.0 per contest). He has grabbed at least five rebounds in 17 games.

    For his career, Barber has scored 879 points while grabbing 512 rebounds.

    Freshman guard Vytas Sulskis has set a school record by making 32 3-pointers this season. The previous best was 31 held by Mike Alcorn in 1990-91. Sulskis is 32-of-77 from 3-point range for an impressive 41.6 percent conversion rate.

    Sulskis has scored in double figures nine 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.

    In the past two games, Sulskis has scored 34 points while grabbing 13 rebounds.

    Freshman guard Vance Cooksey is second on the team with 57 assists and leads the Guins with 25 steals. After starting 16 of the first 17 games, he has come off the bench the last three games.

    Cooksey has had at least three assists in 10 contests. He also has scored in double digits against UCLA, Weber State, Notre Dame and Robert Morris. In the final five minutes of games, Cooksey is 22-of-25 (88 percent) from the free-throw line.

    YSU is 3-1 this year when Cooksey makes at least two 3-pointers in a contest.

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

    Liles, who did not start for the first time in 43 games at Green Bay, leads the team with a 53.0 field-goal percentage making 88-of-166 shots. For the year, he is averaging 10.8 points and 4.8 rebounds per contest. He has scored in double figures 13 times, including 11 of the last 15 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 made his first start of the season last Saturday at Green Bay. 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 194 minutes in the last 12 games (16.2 per game). He has scored 54 points and grabbed 22 rebounds in the last 12 tilts. He is 19-of-38 from the field in those contests. He has also made nine of his last 10 free-throw attempts.

    Junior guard Mel Johnson is the Penguins’ version of Vinnie Johnson. As the sixth man, Johnson has scored 67 points, grabbed 46 rebounds, has 22 steals, 18 assists and six blocks. At Wright State on Jan. 10 he had eight points, three boards, three assists, three steals and a blocked shot.

    Junior guard Mikko Niemi has started the last three games at the point for the Penguins. Niemi had started just one of the previous 17 contests.

    Niemi has played double figures in minutes in nine of the last 10 contests after seeing that much time just three times in the first 10 contests. At Green Bay last Saturday he played a season-high 35 minutes.

    He had four assists in 17 minutes of action against the Ramblers on Jan. 5. This year, the Guins are 3-1 in contests where he makes a 3-pointer.

    The Penguins have either been on from the line or way off. Case in point, YSU shot 94.1 percent at Green Bay (16-of-17) after making 56.3 percent (9-of-16) at UWM in less than two days last week.

    Seven times, YSU has shot 76.7 percent or better from the line while on nine other occasions the Penguins have shot 60 or below. Twice this year, YSU has shot in the 30s -- vs. Valpo (38.5 percent) and at Wright State (36.4 percent).

    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.

    In an eight-game stretch (Nov. 24-Dec. 29), the Guins totaled 216 points in the first half (27 points a half) and 292 in the first half (36.5 a half).

    From Jan. 3-12 (five games) YSU had scored 187 points in the first half and 128 in the second. In three games before Green Bay, YSU scored 75 first-half points and 114 second-half points.

    The Guins scored 33 points in the first half and 25 in the second half last Saturday against the Phoenix.

    The Penguins have relied on seven players to handle the scoring duties this year. Of the 1,296 points scored, John Barber, Byron Davis, Jack Liles, Vance Cooksey, Vytas Sulskis, Mel Johnson and Dwight Holmes have contributed 1,224. Overall, 94.4 percent of YSU’s scoring goes through those seven.

    YSU remains in Chicago and will next be in action on Saturday at UIC. Tipoff between the Penguins and Flames at the UIC Pavilion is set for 8 p.m. Eastern time.