It was a terrific evening on the hardwood for the Youngstown State Penguins basketball teams as Melissa Jackson and Ethan Faulkner’s clubs pulled off a west coast sweep under the Friday night lights. The women’s team defeated the North Dakota Fighting Hawks 65-58 at the Betty Engelstad Sioux Center in Grand Folks, ND; while the men’s team knocked off the Grand Canyon Antelopes 90-81 and silenced their 7,142 fans at the Global Credit Union Arena in Phoenix, AZ. It was the first time that the YSU squads have ever faced the North Dakota women and Grand Canyon men respectively.
In the women’s game, the Penguins scored the first three points of the night before North Dakota went on an 11-0 run and were up 18-15 after one, with South Dakota transfer Walker Demers scoring 11 points in that period alone. In the second quarter, NoDak started on a 7-0 run with buckets by USC Upstate transfer Ava Miller and sophomore Skyler Volmer followed by a three from senior Mikayla Aumer to go up 27-15. However, YSU cut the deficit down to seven with back-to-back shots from redshirt freshmen Sarah Baker and Danielle Cameron to trail 32-25 at halftime.
In the third quarter, North Dakota extended its lead to 40-27 after dropping eight straight points with a three from sophomore Sydney Piekny, a Demers layup, and another trey by Aumer with 7:47 to go. But just a minute and four seconds later, sophomore Hayden Barrier scored five straight points that kicked off YSU’s 16-0 run that turned the game upside down as the Penguins waddled back to take a 43-40 with 4:36 remaining. In that run, the Penguins hit four straight triples with one coming from a different player: Barrier, Cameron, Florida Gulf Coast transfer Casey Santoro, and Cleveland State transfer Paulina Hernandez. Then, a jumper from sophomore Sophia Gregory capped off the run and flipped the switch as YSU was up 49-45 heading into the fourth quarter.
North Dakota opened the final stanza hitting three straight triples to take a 54-49 lead with one from Piekny and back-to-back bombs from Miller, but the Penguins scored 11 of the last 19 points of the game and held the Fighting Hawks without a field goal over the last 8:53 of the contest. During that timespan, Baker went on her own personal 6-0 run and gave YSU the 55-54 lead, but UND went on top one final time at 56-55 courtesy of free throws by Mayville State grad transfer Mackenzie Hughes with 3:51 left to go.
Cameron’s three-ball with 2:35 remaining put YSU up for the remainder of the night at 58-56, while Santoro went a perfect 6-for-6 from the free-throw line in the final half-minute to put the cherry on top.
Baker tied her career high with 16 points (7-of-11 FG); with 13 points, nine rebounds and five rebounds coming from Santoro; and 11 points off the bench from Hernandez – who hit her first-career three pointer in the third and ended up going 3-for-5 from downtown. Gregory only had four points, but pulled down 10 rebounds. Youngstown State not only shot 50 percent from both the field (9-of-18) and on triples (5-of-10) in the third quarter, but they were had a plus-eight in the turnover margin for the game (11 for YSU, 19 for UND) and even outscored the Fighting Hawks 23-13 in points off turnovers. Overall, YSU shot 36.7 percent from the field (22-of-60), 34.8 on threes (8-of-34), and 72.2 percent from the foul line (13-of-18).
Demers led Dennis Hutter’s North Dakota squad with 15 points to go along with nine boards and a pair of blocks, while Miller finished with her first-career double-double consisting of 10 points and a game-high 15 rebounds. Nine points came from Piekny; with six points, six rebounds, and five assists by Hughes; and 13 points off the bench from Aumer. The Fighting Hawks, who rebounded Youngstown State 41-39, are now 0-2 for the first time since 2023-24. They shot a poor 32.2 percent on field goals (19-of-59) and 22.9 percent on triples (8-of-35), but they were outstanding from the charity stripe at 92.3 percent (12-of-13).
Meanwhile down south, the Penguins men’s team battled back and forth with Grand Canyon basically all night. Throughout the first 25 minutes of the game, there were a total of five ties and 13 lead changes before both squads were knotted up at 51 all with 15:06 left in regulation. However, YSU would score 12 of the next 14 points to take a double-digit lead at 63-53 lead with a layup from Houston Christian transfer Bryson Dawkins before redshirt senior Imanuel Zorgvol and junior college transfer Tae Blackshear scored five points each in that run. GCU cut the lead back to 63-61 with an 8-0 run courtesy of four consecutive points from Nana Owusu-Anane followed by back-to-back layups from Brian Moore Jr. and Caleb Shaw, but the Penguins scored 16 of the next 22 points to go up by 12 at 79-67 with four minutes remaining in the contest. The 16-6 run begun with five straight points from Blackshear, with layups from redshirt senior Jason Nelson, a dunk and a layup from Zorgvol, and a three from senior Cris Carroll.
Bryce Drew’s Grand Canyon squad cut YSU’s lead down to six at 79-73 with a minute and a half to go with back-to-back layups from redshirt sophomore Makaih Williams and senior Jaden Henley, but that was as close as they would get from that point forward.
The YSU bench scored 48 of the team’s 90 points. Zorgvol led the team with a career-high 18 points (7-of-9 FG) and blocked four shots, while Blackshear scored 14 points of his own and made all seven of his free throw tries. Redshirt junior Drew King – who played at three other schools before settling in at YSU (Houston Christian, Illinois-Chicago, and Elon) – finished with a near triple-double: 10 points (8-of-10 FT), 10 rebounds and eight assists in 29 minutes. Carroll was the lone Penguin starter and the fourth YSU player to score in double-figures with 14 points to go along with three steals.
Grand Canyon, who had their 15-game home winning streak snapped, had four players score in double-figures as well. Owusu-Anane, the grad transfer from Brown University, led the charge with 19 points and 12 rebounds. Henley, who is playing in his fourth different school (Minnesota, DePaul and UNLV), also scored 19 points of his own. Moore Jr., who is also in his fourth straight college (Northeastern Oklahoma A&M, Murray State and Norfolk State), scored 16 points and shot 5-of-10 from the field. Williams chipped in 11 points off the bench, but played 14 minutes due to foul trouble and fouled out with 45 seconds left in the game.
Youngstown State shot 48.2 percent from the field (27-of-56), 44.4 percent on triples (12-of-27), and 80 percent on free throws (24-of-30). They committed only nine turnovers and scored 18 points off 13 GCU miscues.
The Antelopes outrebounded the Penguins 39-28, scored 56 of their 81 points in the paint, and shot 52.94 percent in the second half (18-of-34). While they shot 48.5 percent from the field overall through the night (32-of-66), they also shot a poor 68.2 percent from the foul line (15-of-22) and an abysmal 15.4 percent from downtown (2-of-13).
Up next:
– The men’s team will have their opener against United States Collegiate Athletic Association school Penn State-Shenango Nittany Lions on Monday, November 10 for a 6:30PM ET tip-off at Zidian Family Arena at Beeghly Center. The home opener can also be seen on ESPN Plus.
– The women’s team will visit the 23rd-ranked Michigan State Spartans, a Big Ten school, on Wednesday, November 12 at 6:30PM ET at the Breslin Center in East Lansing, MI. It will also be televised on Big Ten Network Plus.
