Correspondent photo / Robert Hayes. YSU's Bryson Dawkins dunks on a Chicago State defender during the Penguins' 87-64 home win over the Cougars on Friday afternoon at Zidian Family Arena.

YOUNGSTOWN — After spending most of the month of November on the road, Friday night’s return home to the friendly confines of Zidian Family Arena was welcomed with open arms by Youngstown State.

The Penguins were coming off three straight tough road losses, before they finally had that “get right” game earlier this week vs. Georgia Southern at the Jacksonville Classic.

“Coming in there, just after a tough loss to (UNC-Greensboro), we bounced back against Georgia Southern,” senior Bryson Dawkins said Friday. “I feel like that was a game that kind of propelled us. Just staying connected — that’s our word right now, just staying connected. That’s what we did against Georgia Southern. Everything wasn’t perfect, but we played hard, we played together and that’s what propelled us to where we are now.”

YSU built off its momentum from earlier in the week with its most efficient offensive outing of the season, as the Penguins cruised to an 87-64 victory over Chicago State to wrap up its November slate.

The team had 23 assists on its 30 made field goals, which included knocking down a season-high 17 3-pointers, just one shy of the single-game program record of 18, which was originally set in 2013 against Oakland and matched in 2023 against IUPUI (now IU Indy).

“We had some games on the road that I think we should have won. When you lose like that, you have to look within, and we just knew we had to play better,” sixth-year forward Vlad Salaridze said. “Today was a great example of how well we can play by moving the ball and trusting each other, and the shots start falling. It was, overall, a very fun game to be a part of.”

Dawkins and Cris Carroll led the Penguins with 15 points apiece, while Salaridze matched his season-high with 13 points. Overall, YSU shot 50.8% from the floor and 41.5% from beyond the arc.

Five different players made at least two 3-pointers, and all 13 of the players that dressed played at least four minutes, as 12 of those 13 got on the scoresheet.

But the Penguins’ most significant growth over the last two games, according to head coach Ethan Faulkner, came on the defensive end of the floor, where YSU held the Cougars to 37.7% shooting overall and just four 3-pointers.

“I think it starts on the defensive end of the floor,” Faulkner said. “We’ve been really good the last two games defensively. You hold Georgia Southern to 61, a team that was averaging (about 80) points coming into the game. Held these guys to 64, under 40% field goal percentage, right at 30% from three. That allowed us to get out in transition tonight, which I thought we were really good moving and sharing the ball in transition. Got some quality looks from there.”

Chicago State’s Marcus Tankersley, who the Penguins have some familiarity with from his time previously at Detroit Mercy, has been the Cougars’ leading scorer this season at 17.3 points per game.

He hadn’t scored less than 13 points in any game for CSU this season, but YSU held him to just two points on 1-of-5 shooting.

“He’s a good player, a guy we got a lot of respect for because we’ve competed against him a lot,” Faulkner said. “I thought we had a bunch of guys do a really good job on him. Obviously, we’re switching a lot of things, so it’s not just one guy that has to take ownership over defending him.

“But I thought we did a great job of guarding the ball and really supporting the ball in our plugs. When he drove the ball, we wanted to make him pass. Coming into the game, he had shot the ball 98 times and he only had 11 assists. So he’s certainly a guy that when he gets it in there, he’s thinking score first. So for us, it was about making him pass and play in crowds.”

Now, for the first time this season, YSU will stay at home for consecutive games, as the Penguins are set to begin Horizon League play on Wednesday against Wright State at 6:30 p.m.

“I think for all of our guys, you’ve gotta take it up a notch, right? We’ve gotta have a great competitive edge,” Faulkner said. “I think we’ve had that the last two games. We’ve gotta sustain that with some consistency. All your league games are super important when you’re trying to do something in terms of winning championships. I think our guys understand that’s what we all came here to do is try to compete for those types of things.”