Correspondent photo / Robert Hayes Youngstown State guard Brandon Rush goes up for a layup against Oakland’s Blake Lampman on Jan. 14. The Golden Grizzlies come to town Friday for a matchup with the Penguins, which will be televised on ESPN2.

YOUNGSTOWN — Jerrod Calhoun says he’s all about opportunity.

His Youngstown State squad has positioned itself for a big one as the Penguins prepare for the second half of Horizon League play.

YSU (15-6, 7-3 Horizon League) will begin the home stretch of the regular season by hosting Oakland (9-12, 7-3 Horizon League) on national television, as ESPN2 will air Friday night’s contest (9 p.m., 570 AM WKBN).

The Penguins and Golden Grizzlies are two of the three teams tied for second in the Horizon League standings behind conference leaders Milwaukee and Northern Kentucky.

“I’m all about opportunity, and I think our players have to take advantage of this opportunity because you don’t know what this could do for our program and for our fan base,” Calhoun said.

The teams met not long ago, as Youngstown State traveled to Oakland on Jan. 14 and left Michigan with an 85-69 victory. In that game, the Penguins built a 17-point halftime lead before Oakland rallied back to within four. The Penguins pulled away down the stretch for the win.

In that victory, YSU shot 14-of-26 from 3-point range and 32-of-58 overall. Brandon Rush scored 30 points, and Malek Green added 20 and Bryce McBride had 19.

For as well as the Penguins attacked Oakland’s zone defense, though, Calhoun says it’s the YSU defense that will have to carry the day if the Penguins are to complete a sweep.

That comes following the Penguins’ 88-75 loss at Milwaukee last Saturday, a game in which the Panthers were 34-of-63 overall and 12-of-25 from 3-point range.

“If our defense isn’t operating the way we need it to be, we’re not going to get out in transition, we’re not going to score the ball,” Calhoun said. “We saw that against Milwaukee. We scored 75, and we’re mad. That’s where our offense is these days, so our defense has got to trigger that.”

He added, “I think it starts with the desire to be a good on-ball defender — one-on-one defense, and then team defense. I think sometimes when you get so much talked about with your offense, you become reliant on that, when it needs to be the other way around. We need to rely on our defense to get that offense going.”

A tough task, considering Oakland has four players averaging in double figures. Trey Townsend leads at 16.6 points per game, while Jalen Moore scores 16.3 per game. Keaton Hervey (12.3) and Blake Lampman (10.8) are the other two.

In their first meeting, Moore scored 20, while Townsend and Lampman each had 10. Rocket Watts scored 13.

While the emphasis clearly is on defense leading into the rematch, the Penguins will hope to replicate that impressive shooting performance against an Oakland team that can throw different looks at its opponents through a zone scheme unlike others YSU has come across. After their first meeting, Calhoun described the scheme as a tandem zone with 1-3-1 principles.

“You never know what (Oakland coach Greg Kampe) is going to do,” Calhoun said. “That’s what makes him a great coach and a unique coach. He’s been playing this zone the last couple years, and it’s been very effective. I thought we made a lot of shots up at the O’rena, and I thought we played really good basketball.”

The key to attacking it, Calhoun noted, is getting the ball to the high post and short corner, and then having good shot selection through that movement.

“The thing we did up there is we took good shots, and we dominated the backboards. We have to do that again,” he added.

And, of course, there are Horizon League implications, too. With each team sitting at 7-3 in conference play, YSU could give itself a huge benefit by completing a sweep and putting itself a game ahead of the Golden Grizzlies while also picking up a tiebreaker.

“We’re right there in the hunt for a league title; Greg Kampe’s group is right there as well,” Calhoun said. “They’re 7-3 (in league play), have a veteran coach. I think it’s a great matchup. We’ve had some historic games at the Beeghly Center with Oakland.”