Guins Hosts Second-Place Green Bay in Search of Third Straight League Win

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Feb. 11, 2009

Men's Basketball: Guins Hosts Second-Place Green Bay in Search of Third Straight League Win

    The Youngstown State men’s basketball team (8-15, 5-8 Horizon League) goes for its third straight Horizon League victory when it hosts second-place Green Bay (19-6, 11-2 Horizon League), Thursday, Feb. 12, at the Beeghly Center.
    Tipoff is slated for 7:05 p.m. and the game will also be broadcast live on NewsRadio 570 WKBN AM and tape-delayed on MyYTV.
    The Guins are coming off their first-ever victory at the UIC Pavilion on Feb. 7. YSU used 12 3-pointers and staved off a feverish UIC comeback to secure a 68-60 win over the Flames.
Sophomore Tom Parks tied a career high with 15 points on a career-best five 3-pointers to lead the Guins. Sophomore Vytas Sulskis posted 13 points and drained three 3-pointers against the Flames.
    Junior Kelvin Bright leads the team with 12.8 points per game while junior DeAndre Mays owns a scoring average of 10.7 points per game. Junior Sirlester Martin, who averages 9.2 points per game, leads the team and ranks second in the Horizon League with 7.4 rebounds per game.
    Green Bay enters the contests winning nine of their last 10 games and its last five straight, including a 75-66 win over then No. 11 Butler on Feb. 2.
    Senior Ryan Tillema leads the Phoenix with 16.9 points per game while Troy Cotton is averaging 12.4 points per contest.
    This is the 24th meeting between Youngstown State and Green Bay in the all-time series that dates back to 1993. The Phoenix own an 18-5 advantage in the all-time series, including a 78-61 win at the Resch Center on Jan. 17. The Penguins won the last meeting at the Beeghly Center, 76-73, on Feb. 20, 2008.
    The Penguins host Milwaukee, Saturday, Feb. 14, at 7:05 p.m. at the Beeghly Center.

A Win Will
• Improve YSU to 9-15 overall and 6-8 in the Horizon League.
• Mark YSU’s sixth win over Green Bay.
• Mark YSU’s second straight win over Green Bay at the Beeghly Center
• Mark YSU’s fifth home win of the season and the third home league win.
• Be the first time YSU has won three straight games since February of 2007.
• Be the first time YSU has won three straight league games since 2001.
• Mark Head Coach Jerry Slocum’s 619th career victory and his 39th at Youngstown State.
• YSU’s 973rd victory in the program’s history.

Slocum In Select Company
Youngstown State Head Coach Jerry Slocum is in some pretty elite company. Slocum, who has 618 career wins, is one of seven active Division I head coaches with more than 600 career victories and ranks seventh among that group.

Raining Three’s
Against UIC on Feb. 7, the Penguins set a season high with 12 3-pointers made. The last time YSU made 10 3-pointers in a game was against Valparaiso on Dec. 4, 2008. It is also the most 3-pointers made in a single game since the Guins made 13 against Detroit on Feb. 14, 2007.

Scouting Green Bay
Green Bay enters the contests winning nine of its last 10 games and its last five straight, including a 75-66 win over then No. 11 Butler on Feb. 2. Senior Ryan Tillema leads four Phoenix players averaging in double figures with 16.9 points per game while Troy Cotton is averaging 12.4 points per contest. Mike Schachtner owns a 11.2 points per game average and Rahmon Fletcher is averaging 10.2 points per game.

Last Time Out
The Guins are coming off their first-ever victory at the UIC Pavilion on Feb. 7. YSU used 12 3-pointers and staved off a feverish UIC comeback to secure a 68-60 win over the Flames. Sophomore Tom Parks tied a career high with 15 points on a career-best five 3-pointers to lead the Guins. Sophomore Vytas Sulskis posted 13 points and drained three 3-pointers against the Flames.

Up Next... Milwaukee
The Penguins host Milwaukee, Thursday, Feb. 14, at 7:05 p.m. at the Beeghly Center The contest will be broadcast on NewsRadio 570 AM WKBN.

The Green Bay Series
This is the 24th meeting between Youngstown State and Green Bay in the all-time series that dates back to 1993. The Phoenix own an 18-5 advantage in the all-time series, including a 78-61 win at the Resch Center on Jan. 17. The Penguins won the last meeting at the Beeghly Center, 76-73, on Feb. 20, 2008.

Last Time Against Green Bay
Junior DeAndre Mays scored a career-high 22 points but a hot-shooting Green Bay team was too much as the Youngstown State fell to the Phoenix, 78-61, on Jan. 17 at the Resch Center.
Junior Sirlester Martin scored 11 points and sophomore Tom Parks came off the bench to score a then career-high 10 points.
The Phoenix shot 51 percent from the field while the Penguins connected on just 33 percent of their field-goal attempts.
The Penguins jumped out to a 5-4 lead after Mays hit a jumper at the 17:10 mark but the Phoenix went on a 17-4 run to take a 21-9 lead midway through the first half and never looked back

Guins Step Up Defense
Over the last two games, the Penguins have been playing some stifling defense. In wins over Loyola (Feb. 5) and UIC (Feb. 7), the Guins allowed 54.5 points per game while their opponents shot just 27.5 percent from the field. The 49 points allowed against Loyola was a season-low. It also marks just the third time since YSU joined Division I that the Penguins allowed under 50 points in a road victory. The last time was a 43-41 win at IUPUI on Jan. 6, 2001. The first time was a 52-48 win over Akron on Feb. 26, 1983.

Cooksey is Charitable
Over the course of his 51-game career, Vance Cooksey has been the Penguins best free-throw shooter. He leads the team with a .761 free-throw percentage this season. Last year, Cooksey owned an impressive free-throw percentage of .797. His current career free-throw percentage is .783 and ranks ninth all-time.

Sulskis Returns to Double Figures
After not scoring in double figures in nine straight games, sophomore Vytas Sulskis has been on on a roll. Over the last three games, Sulskis has scored in double figures in each game and is averaging 12.7 point per contest. He is also shooting at a 50 percent clip from the field. Sulskis scored 13 points against UIC on Feb. 7, 10 points against Loyola on Feb. 5 and led the Penguins with 15 points on 6-of-9 shooting from the floor against Detroit on Jan. 31. He has scored in double figures in nine games this season and 21 times in his career.

Saturday In the Parks
Over the last two weeks, sophomore Tom Parks has been a menace to his opponents. During that time, Parks is averaging 11.5 points per game and is shooting 57.7 percent from the field. More impressive is his accuracy from behind the 3-point line. Parks, who tied a career high with 15 points againts UIC on Feb. 7, is shooting 59.1 percent (13-of-21) from behind the arc in the last four games. He made four treys against Wright State (Jan. 29), three against Detroit (Jan. 31), one against Loyola (Feb. 5) and a career-best five against UIC (Feb. 7). He went 5-for-5 against the Flames.

February Firsts
After picking up their first road win in the month of February since a 75-69 win at UMKC on Feb. 17, 2001, with their 60-49 win at Loyola on Feb. 5, the Penguins won for the first time at the UIC Pavilion on Feb. 7. With a win over Green Bay, it will mark the first time YSU has won three straight games in the month of February since 2007 when the Guins defeated Detroit, 82-70 (Feb. 14), Eastern Kentucky, 66-61 (Feb. 17) and Wright State, 72-57 (Feb. 22). It will also be the first time YSU will have won three straight conference games in the month of February since 1995.

Rebillot Crashes Glass
In just 11 minutes played against Loyola on Feb. 5, Zack Rebillot hauled down a career-high six rebounds against the Ramblers. His previous career high was four against Kent State (12/15) and High Point (12/19).

Mays Hits For Career High
Junior DeAndre Mays scored a career-high 22 points in the Penguins’ 78-61 loss to Green Bay on Jan. 17. The Dallas, Texas, native connected on 7-of-21 shooting from the field and 7-of-10 from the free-throw line.

Liles Still Streakin’; Now Eighth on Games Played Chart
Youngstown State senior Jack Liles has played in 105 consecutive games, dating back to the 2005-06 season. Liles, who has played in 111 career games, needs 204 points to become the first player in school history to reach 1,000 points, 500 rebounds and 100 blocks in a career. Liles also ranks third all-time with 108 career blocked shots. He also has 536 career rebounds. Liles also moved into a tie for eighth-place on the career games played list with 111.