“Extremely disappointed. Subtly, with our team at home, even being up five at the half, I felt like our huddles were (poor). Our players were frustrated and not quite as connected as I would have liked us to have been with the magnitude of this game, with Youngstown beating us four straight times — two times in our building, and this will be the third,” Sargent said.
“I have a locker room full of players who understand all those dynamics and how we’ve been pushed around. It happened again. When it mattered most, we looked disconnected.”
The Raiders took a 21-9 lead at 12:20 of the first half and were outscored, 71-49, the rest of the way. They gave up 45 second-half points.
Sargent, who is in his first year as coach after eight years as an assistant, was more animated than he’s been all year, at least at home — annoyed with the officiating (3,932 fans were in agreement there), but more frustrated with his players.
“For a program that has retention (meaning plenty of veterans) and works on being connected — all those areas you guys (in the media) have heard me talk about a number of times — it did not show up tonight,” he said.
“I didn’t do a good job of getting our guys prepared with the week off. I tried to find that sweet spot of staying dialed in and locked in, and, clearly, we were not sharp tonight. Youngstown State, they’re playing well. Give them a ton of credit for how they came in here and just took the game.”
The Raiders fell to 7-6 overall and 1-2 in the league with their first home loss in five games this year.
YSU is 7-5 and 3-0.
Jack Doumbia had 17 points, 10 rebounds and three blocks. Alex Huibregtse had 15 points, while Brandon Noel had 10 points and 10 rebounds.
But it looked like joyless experience for all involved. The Raiders just seemed disjointed.
“I thought it was an ‘us’ issue,” fourth-year junior point guard Keaton Norris said. “Individually, I thought we all weren’t there — too into our own things, too worried about our own stats or whatever. Whatever it was, it’s got to get better.”
The Raiders gave up 80 points for only the third time this year and had held their last seven foes to 79 points or fewer.
But Norris said the problems ran deeper than simply defensive lapses.
“We’ve got to come together. We’ve got to communicate with each other better so this won’t happen again,” he said.
“We gave up 45 points in the second half. By no means were we good defensively. But that wasn’t the only problem.”
SATURDAY’S GAME
Wright State at Eastern Michigan, 2 p.m., ESPN+, 101.5, 1410
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