Correspondent photo / Robert Hayes. YSU's EJ Farmer drives and scores during the second half of Thursday's 84-75 victory over Oakland at the O'rena in Rochester, Mich. Farmer finish with a game-high 25 points, his fourth straight game with at least 20 points.

ROCHESTER, Mich. — Since his return from injury, EJ Farmer has provided Youngstown State with a scoring presence that it sorely missed during his four-game absence.

In his first game back in the starting lineup, Farmer led the Penguins with 25 points in an 84-75 road victory over Oakland on Thursday at the O’rena.

“He’s been arguably our most consistent offensive player — looked like a player of the year-type guy tonight. I thought he played exceptionally well,” head coach Ethan Faulkner said. “He did a lot of really good stuff for us, but we got a lot of contributions from a lot of different people, and we needed it in this game. Obviously it’s a very difficult place to play, a place where we haven’t had a ton of success. So to come here and get a big win when we really needed it speaks a lot about our guys and how we responded to that (loss) on Saturday.”

Farmer’s 25-point performance was his fourth straight game with at least 20 points since his return to the floor on Jan. 22 against Robert Morris.

“I feel like just coming in, I wanted to be able to do as much as I could for the team,” Farmer said. “I felt nice and warm today, ready to go, and it showed. … It’s a mental game, so I was just confident in everything I was doing and just going as hard as I can.”

Only five other Penguins have scored 20-plus in four straight games since YSU joined the Horizon League in 2001.

“I’m not even really thinking about it in the moment,” Farmer said. “I’m just going play-by-play each game, so I’m basically doing whatever it takes to win for the team. Whether it’s scoring 25 or two, I just want to do whatever it takes to win for the team.”

Farmer’s re-insertion back into the lineup was meant to help YSU get off to the start it needed, according to Faulkner, and it worked.

The Penguins built as much as a 12-point lead in the first half, hitting seven threes around Oakland’s zone, while also forcing the Golden Grizzlies into 13 turnovers on the defensive end. But Oakland tightened things up by halftime and only trailed by six at the break.

In the second half, YSU had to navigate some mounting foul trouble to its forwards, as the Penguins had to battle down low against Oakland’s two bigs — Tuburu Naivalurua and Allen David Mukeba, who combined for 35 points to lead the Golden Grizzlies.

Christian Kirkland fouled out midway through the second half and Gabe Dynes and Cris Carroll each picked up their fourth fouls by the under-eight minute media timeout. Dynes fouled out shortly thereafter, finishing with five blocks on the night.

“We just had to keep throwing them guys in and out of there,” Faulkner said. “I thought all those guys competed their tails off. (Naivalurua and Mukeba) are extremely physical, and they’re so different than any other team because it’s literally physical warfare every single possession because they’re going to pound it in almost every play, so you have to be on high alert.

“I thought Gabe’s five blocks were instrumental in helping us win the game, along with those 18 turnovers, which allowed us to get some easy baskets.”

The Penguins continue their Michigan road trip on Saturday at 1 p.m., as they venture into the city to take on Detroit Mercy. YSU beat the Titans 73-64 in their first meeting in Youngstown back on Dec. 29.

“We’ll get rested up tonight, and we’ll have a film session in the morning before an early practice,” Faulkner said. “The message is, we gotta continue to play with a sense of urgency, and we gotta continue to play with desperate effort. We are in a position to fight for everything that we want, but we gotta go get this one on Saturday. It’s a big game, and we need to get it done.”

Correspondent photo / Robert Hayes. YSU’s Detroit native Juwan Maxey shoots and scores an early three-pointer during the first half on Thursday at Oakland.

HOMECOMING

YSU’s weekend road swing through the state of Michigan is a homecoming for Penguins guards Juwan Maxey and David Wilkerson.

“It always feels good to come home,” Maxey said. “We still got one that’s actually in the city, but we had to win one here. It feels good just seeing all my people in the stands. I knew I had to get one for the family.”

With their respective friends and families in the stands, they each gave YSU a spark.

Maxey led YSU in scoring in the first half with 10 points and finished with 19 for the game on four made threes to go with three assists and four rebounds, while Wilkerson scored five points to give the Penguins some bench scoring.

“It gave me a boost — you hear some people in the crowd every now and then,” Maxey said. “When you got people coming out looking for you, you gotta succeed.”

BLAST FROM THE PAST

At halftime, Oakland honored former Golden Grizzly Kay Felder by raising his No. 20 number up into the rafters of the O’rena.

Felder is the Horizon League’s all-time career assists leader and he averaged 17.5 points per game during his three seasons at Oakland, including 24.4 per game during his final season in 2015-2016.

After leaving school early after his junior year, he was drafted by the Atlanta Hawks with the 54th pick in the second round of the 2016 NBA Draft, but was immediately traded to the Cleveland Cavaliers on draft night. He has played professionally since then, spending time in the NBA with the Cavaliers, Chicago Bulls and Detroit Pistons, before spending the last five years in China.

Felder faced YSU seven times during his career, averaging 15.9 points per game against the Penguins.