Correspondent photo / Robert Hayes Youngstown State’s John Lovelace Jr. throws down a dunk during a fast break. His 23 points helped lead the Penguins past Bethany College (WV) 107-70.

YOUNGSTOWN — Bethany College (WV) is a fast-paced, up-tempo team.

The Bison want to get up-and-down the floor, push the pace and take a lot of shots, especially from three-point range. Bethany attempts the 17th-most threes in Division III, at 29.7 per game.

Youngstown State is similar in what it wants to do.

So, for all intents and purposes, it was a track meet Thursday night, and the Penguins were happy to oblige, as YSU trounced the Bison 107-70.

“We told our guys that this is not a Division III team that’s going to come in here and not shoot the three and spray the ball ahead,” head coach Jerrod Calhoun said. “Quite honestly, these games are really mismatches for the Division I team because they have four or five guards on the floor at all times. We have two seven footers or we’re always 6-foot-9 or 6-foot-7, so we’re not used to seeing the small, skilled guys that can pass, catch and shoot. So it seems like with our group, it always takes them 5-8 minutes to understand what we’re talking about.”

The Bison attempted 38 threes against the Penguins, but only hit 12 of them — a 31.6% clip. Still, Calhoun wasn’t satisfied with how YSU defended the three-point line.

“There’s no need to help (inside) and not get out and inch out on shooters,” Calhoun said. “We really didn’t do that most of the game and that was probably the disappointing part (because) every guy we put in didn’t understand that you really don’t have help principles in this game because they’re going to shoot literally 30-40 threes. So you want to defend the three before the two, but we just kept making those mistakes.”

As the Bison tried to score from outside, YSU took advantage of its significant size advantage and went to work in the post against Bethany’s zone defenses.

As a result, YSU finished the game shooting an efficient, sizzling 60% from the field.

“I think a lot of it was our size,” Calhoun said. “We threw the ball to our post players continually all night. … We knew what they would do. In our league, you’ll see a lot of zone this year. Oakland is going to play zone, most of these teams in our league play zone. So I thought this game was good for us from that standpoint because we haven’t seen a bunch of zone, and we’ll probably see it again on Monday. So these games can help you.”

The tallest player on Bethany’s roster is 6-foot-7 LaBrae product Blake Kahnell, who only played four minutes and had two points. Six-foot-6 East Liverpool alum Cole Dailey, who is Calhoun’s cousin, is Bethany’s leading scorer and was routinely required to guard or score against the tallest player that the Penguins had on the floor at any given time.

Despite averaging 15.9 points per game coming in, Dailey was limited to just 10 points and four rebounds against assignments that often ranged from 7-foot-3 Gabe Dynes to 6-foot-7 DJ Burns or John Lovelace Jr.

The Penguins scored 72 of their 107 points in the paint, outscoring Bethany 72-26 in that category. Lovelace and Dynes combined to go 17-22 from the floor, with Lovelace leading YSU in scoring with 23 points. Dynes finished a perfect 7-for-7 from the floor for 14 points.

“It was really our bigs. … They just came in ready to dominate the paint,” EJ Farmer said. “We really got into the paint, like coach was saying all game. So those guys definitely came ready to go.”

But, despite scoring their highest point total of the season so far, the Penguins still aren’t where Calhoun wants them to be offensively.

While the Bison can score in bunches, they aren’t the sharpest defensive team — giving up 88.5 points per game, which ranks 390th in all of Division III.

“Honestly, Fairmont State last night scored (117) on them, so I think we’re still struggling offensively,” Calhoun said. “I don’t think we see the game well enough. I don’t think we make the correct passes and correct reads. We didn’t shoot the ball particularly well either from three, so I think that hurt us a little bit.”

Next up for YSU is the annual visit from border neighbor Westminster (Pa.) on Monday night. Tip is set for 6:30 p.m. from the Beeghly Center.

nmadhavan@tribtoday.com