Correspondent photo / Robert Hayes. YSU's EJ Farmer drives past multiple NKU defenders during the first half on Sunday at the Beeghly Center. He scored 12 points in a 82-52 rout of the Norse.

YOUNGSTOWN — Youngstown State came into Sunday’s game against Northern Kentucky with a chip on its shoulder.

After dropping a close one to NKU on the road in the first meeting on Jan. 4, the Penguins felt disrespected by the Norse’s comments about YSU’s defense after the loss.

“(Youngstown State), they’re a good offensive team with a lot of shooters, but defensively, a lot of it is simple stuff,” NKU head coach Darrin Horn said after the first meeting between the two teams.

Just like Michael Jordan said in The Last Dance documentary, YSU “took it personally.”

“I didn’t really like what the coaches said, in the last press conference after the last game,” fifth-year forward DJ Burns said. “They said they didn’t know what type of defense we had.”

Safe to say, NKU knows about YSU’s defense now, as the Penguins locked down defensively against the Norse, holding NKU to 28.8% shooting in a dominant 82-52 victory at the Beeghly Center.

“I got great respect for Coach Horn and their system,” head coach Jerrod Calhoun said. “A lot has been made of us having two guys from their program, that sort of thing. The reality of it is the transfer portal. There’s going to be guys that leave my program that I’m going to have to coach against. This is what the NCAA and the players wanted. I think it’s great, I love (guys) having the freedom to go into the portal. Part of the reason we took those guys from NKU is because they won. So I have respect for what Darrin Horn’s done in their program.

“That being said, I think after the first game there were some comments made about our defense. As a coach, as a staff, you use things for motivation whenever you can. So was that used as motivation? Absolutely. Was the message heard and carried out by my guys? Absolutely.”

YSU had to weather the storm at first though, as NKU hit five of its first six attempts from beyond the arc in the opening minutes.

But from there, the Norse missed each of their next three shots from deep, and only hit three more the rest of the game. NKU finished with eight three-pointers, but only made seven two-point field goals against the Penguins’ interior defense.

“Everything was going to start and end with our defense,” Calhoun said. “That’s where we’re at with this group. We talked about it. If we guard, we can beat anybody in the conference, and I thought we sustained it for the full 40 minutes from start to finish.”

A critical part of YSU’s defense was defending the Horizon League’s third-leading scorer, Marques Warrick, who’s averaging 19.0 points per game and dropped 29 on the Penguins during the first meeting.

Multiple players took stretches guarding Warrick and limiting his effectiveness, including EJ Farmer and John Lovelace Jr., and the Penguins were able to hold him to eight points on 2-for-9 shooting, his second-lowest point total of the season.

“Everything starts with Warrick — I think you have to lock in on him,” Calhoun said. “I have great respect for him. They run good actions to get him open. So we wanted him to really feel our presence, not only on the ball, but in the gaps. … EJ, Johnny and our other players really did a good job of forcing him right, running him off the three-point line and arriving on the catch and when he drove the ball, (making sure) he sees a group of players.”

In the absence of Gabe Dynes and Jaylen Bates over the past three games, YSU has needed increased production from its bench, and Farmer has been one that’s answered the call as of late.

After scoring 18 points against Detroit Mercy and 15 versus IUPUI, Farmer continued to be a spark for the Penguins against the Norse, finishing with 12 points on 5-for-9 shooting that included drilling a turnaround, stepback, fadeaway jumper in traffic while getting fouled at the end of the first half.

“I think it’s the hair,” Farmer said jokingly. “I think I’ve just got really confident. My teammates trust me a lot to take shots, so it’s just starting to come along.”

Offensively, five players finished in double figures for the Penguins, including Farmer, Burns (11 points), Brandon Rush (10 points), Brett Thompson (10 points) and Ziggy Reid (18 points).

But managing the foul situation, especially in the second half, was necessary for the Penguins, especially considering the shorter rotation without Dynes and Bates.

By halftime, five different YSU players had already picked up two fouls. Then Reid and Imanuel Zorgvol each added their third and fourth fouls throughout the second half, before fouling out late with YSU safely ahead.

“In our coaches meeting, we talked about that,” Calhoun said. “One of the things I said is if we get into foul trouble, play Johnny at that forward position. Sure enough, credit to NKU, they’re a physical team. They’re big, they’re long, all those kids — LJ Wells, Trey Robinson, (Keeyan) Itejere. They really post up. We don’t see that a ton. Usually one player does it; they have three players that do it. So it gave us a little bit of a problem. But I give our kids a ton of credit for just being resilient.”

YSU now heads back out on the road for two games to face Wright State on Thursday at 9 p.m. and Purdue Fort Wayne on Sunday at 2 p.m.

nmadhavan@tribtoday.com