Youngstown State Women’s Basketball Gets Blown Out at Michigan State

The Youngstown State Penguins women’s basketball team (2-1) suffered their first loss of the season, courtesy of a 96-52 blowout at the hands of the nationally 24th-ranked Michigan State Spartans (3-0) on Wednesday evening at the Breslin Center in East Lansing, MI. It was the first-ever meeting between both programs, as each squad saw four players score in double-figures.

The Penguins tied the score twice in the early going to make it 4-4, with the second time coming on a fastbreak layup from Sophia Gregory with 7:49 remaining in the first quarter. That turned out to be Gregory’s only made basket in her 24 minutes of action. Michigan State then went on a 12-2 for their first double-digit lead of the game at 16-6 with 4:21 remaining in the first quarter, with senior Emma Shumate hitting three triples during that run. The Spartans ended up with a 25-12 advantage at the end of the quarter.

Robyn Fralick’s Spartans led by 20 in the second quarter, but the Penguins cut the lead to 12 midway through the period with an 8-0 run with a pair of buckets by redshirt senior Faith Burch, as well as layups from redshirt freshman Sarah Baker and redshirt sophomore Dacia Lewandowski. However, the Spartans answered back by scoring 12 unanswered points over the last four minutes of the first half to expand their lead to 45-21, with consecutive made threes from senior Theyrn Hallock, freshman Amy Terrian, and Montana State transfer Marah Dykstra; that was followed up with a Dykstra three-point play. Then, Florida Gulf Coast transfer Casey Santoro made a layup to trim the deficit to 22 at 45-23 at halftime.

Youngstown State’s best-scoring quarter of the evening was 17 in the third stanza while making 63.6 percent (7-of-11) of their shots, but Michigan State shot way better at 76.9 percent (10-of-13) in that same frame, with VanSlooten scoring nine and redshirt sophomore Kennedy Blair scoring six in the period. In the fourth quarter, Michigan State went on a 20-6 run over the final 7:26 of the night.

Baker and Burch led YSU with the same statline of 10 points and two steals apiece, with eight points coming from both Santoro and sophomore Hayden Barrier, and a career-high of seven points and three steals for Lewandowski. Youngstown State shot 46.8 percent (22-of-47) from the field, 35.7 percent (5-of-14) from three-land, 42.7 percent (3-of-7) on foul shots.

Senior Grace VanSlooten, who was named as one of 50 players on the Naismith Trophy watch list for National Player of the Year, scored 17 points to lead all scorers. Shumate tied her season high with 14 points off the bench and went 4-for-5 from downtown, while Hallock and Arizona State transfer Jalyn Brown both added 11 points each. Blair recorded eight points, five assists and a career-high four steals despite getting in early foul trouble; while Purdue transfer Rashunda Jones had four points and dished out a game-high seven assists. All 12 Spartan players scored at least three or more points, while half of the team’s 96 points came from their reserves.

While Michigan State made a poor 55.6 percent (10-of-18) of their free throws, they shot a solid 54.4 percent (37-of-68) from the field and 48 percent (12-of-25) on threes. They won the rebounding battle 36-24, and 17 of those boards came off the offensive glass which led to 23 points. The Spartans, who had four players reach double figures for the third-straight game, also had a plus-13 turnover margin (27-14) and scored a third of their points off YSU’s 27 turnovers.

Michigan State’s 90-point efforts with Fralick in charge
– 90+ points in their first three games of the season for the second-straight year
– 21st time they have reached that plateau, winning 20 of those games

Other fun facts
– Baker was named the Horizon League Women’s Basketball Freshman of the Week on Monday
– Penguins assistant coach Courtney Davidson played at Michigan State from 2004-08 under head coaches Joanne P. McCallie and Suzy Merchant. As a freshman, Davidson was a member of the team that lost to a Kim Mulkey-coached Baylor Bears squad in the 2005 NCAA Tournament National Championship game.

Up next: Melissa Jackson’s Penguins will return home to meet the Bucknell Bison out of the Patriot League on Sunday, November 16 at 2:00ET at Zidian Family Arena at Beeghly Center.

James Moon (CashApp): $JRMoon91