Correspondent photo / Robert Hayes. Acting head coach Dwaine Osborne speaks to his team during a second half timeout on Friday at the Beeghly Center. Head coach Ethan Faulkner was serving a one-game suspension during the Penguins' game against Penn State-Shenango.

YOUNGSTOWN — Even without head coach Ethan Faulkner, Youngstown State didn’t miss a beat on Friday.

Faulkner was suspended by the Horizon League for one game for “unsportsmanlike actions” towards an official at the conclusion of the Penguins’ last-second loss to Robert Morris on Wednesday.

The league has tried to crack down on confrontations between coaches and officials over the last couple years, and Faulkner was unhappy with what he felt was a missed call by the officials on the Colonials’ final possession that led to their game-winning basket.

Associate head coach Dwaine Osborne served as the Penguins’ acting head coach against Penn State-Shenango in Faulkner’s absence, and guided YSU to a 112-63 victory against the Lions during a morning school day game at the Zidian Family Arena.

“It probably might be different for other people in different situations,” Osborne said. “But I’ve been a head coach for the last 19 years. So I’ve been in that situation about 500 times. But we have great kids, so they make it easy just to go out there and do what we need to do. So it was good for us to get a win today.”

Against the Lions, YSU set program single-game records for most rebounds (72) and most three-point attempts (43), while also hitting 15 of those threes, tying the mark for fifth-most made threes in a game.

“I think we were just trying to take the best shots that were available to us,” Osborne said. “I think we shoot quite a few threes normally, just based on what we average in our attempts per game. So that was available a lot of the day. We just want to try to take the best shots we can, and hopefully we’re training ourselves to create the habits we need to be successful. Then rebounding is super important every game.”

In his second game back after missing four games with a lower leg injury, senior guard EJ Farmer led the Penguins with 20 points.

Against the Colonials on Wednesday, Farmer came off the bench to score five points in 21 minutes. But after missing several weeks, YSU’s leading scorer is still trying to get himself back to where he was before the injury.

“Him just being back is a great thing,” Osborne said. “For him, a lot of today was just about trying to get back in the flow a little bit and run up and down. Being out for a couple weeks with a foot injury — it’s not like you had a broken arm and you can still condition yourself, so to speak — so he’s been out for a little bit. Just to get out there and run up and down is going to be beneficial for both him and us, as we need him to be really good for us the rest of the way to do what we want to do.”

All 12 of the Penguins’ healthy players saw time on the floor against PSU-Shenango and they each scored to get on the stat sheet.

Farmer was one of six players to score in double figures against the Lions, along with Ty Harper (17), Jason Nelson (16), Gabe Dynes (13), Nico Galette (12) and Cris Carroll (11). Dynes (12), Galette (10), Carroll (12) and Farmer (10) each also pulled down double-digit rebounds to post double-doubles.

The Penguins will get back to conference play on Thursday with a home contest against Wright State at 6:30 p.m., before hosting IU Indy on Saturday at 2 p.m.

A FAMILIAR FACE

Lions head coach Michael Wernicki made his return to the Beeghly Center for the first time since 2017.

Wernicki was an assistant coach on former head coach Jerry Slocum’s staff from 2005 to 2017, and served as associate head coach during Slocum’s final season in 2016-2017.

“I spent 12 years here, and we had a lot of great moments,” Wernicki said. “Coach Faulkner and (former) Coach (Jerrod) Calhoun have done a tremendous job. I think we laid the groundwork for those guys to get where they are. So for me to come back here and have an opportunity to coach again, it was special for me.”

This is Wernicki’s first season as head coach at Penn State-Shenango. The Erie native took over the Lions’ program last year after spending six seasons as head coach at Struthers, where he led the Wildcats to three Northeast-8 Conference championships and a district championship in 2021.

“I was proud of my guys,” Wernicki said. “Obviously we’re undermanned, but I thought we represented ourselves and Penn State-Shenango really well tonight.”

SHOWING OUT

Two Mahoning Valley natives got to see the floor for the Lions on Friday.

PSU-Shenango senior D’Montez Owens led his team with 19 points against the Penguins. The Warren G. Harding product has played all four years of his college career with the Lions and has been Shenango’s leading scorer this season, averaging 21.5 points per game.

Springfield alum and Lions freshman Connor Hudran also played on Friday. He recorded two rebounds and an assist in five minutes of action.