YOUNGSTOWN — It’s been a difficult month for Youngstown State, but the streak is finally over.
Cris Carroll had a career performance on Thursday night, as the Penguins snapped their seven-game Horizon League losing streak with a near wire-to-wire 88-81 victory over Green Bay at Zidian Family Arena.
“It feels good to get a win. Obviously we needed some positivity. We needed one to go our way,” head coach Ethan Faulkner said. “I feel like our guys have really been just coming to work every day, trying to make progress. It hasn’t always showed on the floor, but thought we played excellent offensively, really shared the basketball. … We were better defensively tonight, but still gotta get better on that end of the floor.”
During its losing skid, YSU (10-11, 3-7 Horizon) has been right on the cusp, with five of its seven league losses coming by five points or less. That only compounded the team’s recent frustrations.
But in the final minute against the Phoenix (11-10, 6-4 Horizon), as the Penguins closed out the win and walked off the floor, there were smiles and laughs that had been missing since the first two months of the season. It was as though a weight had finally been lifted.
“As ya’ll seen, we’ve been kind of in a slump. But our coaches know how much work we’ve been putting in,” said freshman Jaiden Haynes. “We’re getting extra workouts after practice, before practice, in the morning. So to finally see that starting to pay off — by no means are we complacent, by no means are we going to let our foot off the gas — but just to see your work paying off, it really does mean a lot.”
Cris Carroll, who missed the final few minutes of last week’s loss at Cleveland State with cramping issues, returned with a vengeance against the Phoenix.
With YSU leading by six at halftime, he had 13 points to lead all scorers. But then he exploded in the second half for 21 points, finishing with new career-highs of 34 points and eight 3-pointers.
“I’m just the kind of player where once I’m in my flow state, I’m in my flow state, and it’s hard to take me out of it,” Carroll said. “I just feel like we played harder tonight. We really wanted it tonight. When you play hard and you play like you want it, those are the results you’ll get.”
Carroll’s eight 3-pointers were tied for the most by a player in program history against a Division I and Horizon League opponent. He’s also the fourth player in program history to make at least eight threes in a game.
“Cris Carroll, just a monster performance,” Faulkner said. “I thought he played excellent, just up and down the line.”
Green Bay made the first basket of the night, knocking down a Marcus Hall 3-pointer in the first 90 seconds. But after Rich Rolf answered with a three of his own on the next possession, YSU never trailed the rest of the game.
After the Penguins led by as many as 10 in the first half, the Phoenix tied things up at 27-all with a run. But YSU managed to eke out a 38-32 lead by halftime.
The Penguins rebuilt their double-digit lead to open the second half, racing ahead on a 16-7 run and growing their lead to as much as 18, as Carroll started heating up from beyond the arc.
“We came out of the half, and I thought we played the first four minutes well. We were really good on both sides of the ball,” Faulkner said. “Rich (Rolf) made a few threes, I think Cris made some. Then again, just execution on the defensive end of the floor. I don’t think we did anything astronomical in terms of that; we just executed. That’s been this team’s Achilles’ heel. That’s why we haven’t been as good. On that end of the floor, it’s just simple execution mistakes, and we didn’t make so many of them tonight.”
YSU’s starting five provided the bulk of its scoring against the Phoenix. Alongside Carroll, Rolf and Bryson Dawkins each finished with 15 points, while Haynes added 12, as he made his first career start.
“It meant a lot, just being a freshman coming into college,” Haynes said of getting the starting nod. “My coaches trusted me, my teammates had my back. I started off a little bit hot, then got into a little bit of a shooting slump. Felt my shots going long, and I don’t really usually shoot long. I’m more of a guy where, if I miss, I shoot short. But just them trusting me with the ball, knowing that they got my back, it allows you to play a little more freely.”
Dawkins had to leave the floor twice in the final minutes as he battled cramping issues, while Vlad Salaridze did not play and wasn’t on the bench Thursday due to a “coach’s decision.”
The Penguins continue their homestand on Saturday against Milwaukee at 1 p.m. at Zidian Family Arena in a contest that was moved up an hour due to the impending winter storm forecasted to hit a large swath of the country this weekend.
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