YSU Women’s Basketball Loses at Home to Toledo

The Youngstown State Penguins women’s basketball team (4-2) suffered their first home loss of the season in a very competitive showdown against the Toledo Rockets, 69-65, on Wednesday night at Zidian Family Arena at Beeghly Center. It was the first meeting for both squads since 2008, with the lead changing five times in the fourth quarter.

Toledo scored the game’s first seven points with free throws from sophomore Faith Fedd-Robinson, a layup from sophomore Evalyse Cole, and a three from Towson grad transfer Patricia Anumgba. They kept the Penguins scoreless until YSU got on the board with a turnaround shot from redshirt senior Faith Burch, and a three from sophomore Erica King on YSU’s next possession. However, the Rockets extended their lead to 17-8 after going on a 10-3 run that started with another three-ball from Anumgba, and was capped off with another trey from Toledo native Kendall Carruthers. The biggest UT advantage was 22-12 with 46 seconds left, following a three-point play from Alexa Hocevar, but Penguins redshirt freshman Danielle Cameron made a layup to end the quarter, which helped carry over a run to start the second stanza.

That’s when sophomore Sophia Gregory drove to the cup for a layup, before getting a steal and feeding King for a three to trail 22-19 at the 9:33 mark. Hocevar was then charged with a technical foul for being the sixth Toledo player on the court, and YSU took advantage, as Florida Gulf Coast transfer Casey Santoro made a pair of free throws, before a layup from King capped off an 11-0 run and gave the Penguins their first lead at 23-22 with 8:59 to go. The scoring then cooled off before Toledo scored 12 of the last 17 points off the half and regained the 34-28 advantage at recess, with Cole scoring six points in the period.

Youngstown State kicked off the second half by scoring 14 of the first 16 points to go up by six, at 42-36, with 4:18 remaining, but Toledo skyrocketed back and knotted the score at 42 with a made free throw and layup from Fedd-Robinson, and a game-tying three from Hocevar, following a big time offensive rebound from junior Ella Weaver at the 1:51 mark. YSU’s lead was 46-44 heading into the final period.

After a jump ball, Anumgba made her third three-pointer of the night to give Toledo a 47-46 lead 51 seconds into the fourth quarter, and the lead changed four more times after that as the teams traded buckets, before Anumgba nailed another dagger from downtown for a 54-50 advantage with 7:01 remaining. King’s three-point play with 6:07 remaining brought the Penguins to within one, 54-53, at the 6:07 mark, but the Rockets scored seven of the next 10 points, capped off with a triple from Hocevar, and a two from Anumgba, which made it 63-56 with 3:45 to go.

Gregory scored a layup in the paint on the very next possession to cut the deficit to five, but neither team scored a point for the next 2:14, until a bucket from Carruthers pushed the Rockets’ lead back up to 65-58 with 35 seconds left. After a Santoro layup, Anumgba nailed some foul shots to make it 67-60 with 18 seconds to go. However, YSU refused to back down, and scored five unanswered points, starting with Santoro nailing a three-ball, followed by Gregory grabbing a rebound after a pair of missed free throws from Carruthers, and driving coast to coast to score with just 3.3 seconds remaining. However, Anumgba got fouled by Gregory following the inbound pass and sunk in a pair of foul shots to put the cream cheese on the bagel.

“I give Toledo a lot of credit,” Penguins head coach Melissa Jackson said after the game. “They hit some big time shots at crucial moments down the stretch there. I thought we executed and got the shots that we wanted. We just didn’t make them, we just didn’t finish. Obviously, it’s so early in the non-conference, and we’ve been in a couple of games where we’ve executed and we’ve made those shots and obviously have come out with the victory. [We were] on the other side of it tonight, but it was a heck of a basketball game, going back and forth. Whoever came out to watch that tonight really got a good women’s basketball game here in our arena.”

Youngstown State shot 47.3 percent (26-of-55) from the field, 30.8 percent (4-of-13) on threes, and 75 percent (9-of-12) from the charity stripe.

Gregory had one of the best games of her career as she scored a season-high 16 points to go along with eight rebounds, two assists, two steals, and two blocks.

“She’s really good,” Jackson said about Gregory. “When she’s on the floor, we’re a really good basketball team. When she’s on the floor, it just presents different challenges for teams to guard, especially in transition. She’s really tough to handle there. We didn’t have her very much in the first half, she was in foul trouble, so very happy for her to play. Maybe I took her out for like ten seconds in the second half, and you saw when she’s out there, everything she can do both offensively and defensively.”

“It’s so much better when I move my feet on defense,” Gregory stated. “Really handling the ball on offense and making the good reads has been one of the better things that have been working, and then just working out with my teammates.”

Fifteen points came from Santoro, redshirt freshman Sarah Baker had 14, while King added 11. Those three, along with Gregory, not only scored 56 of YSU’s 65 points, but they were the only four players to score in the entire second half.

Toledo (2-3) made 42.6 percent (26-of-61) of their field goals and 31.8 percent (7-of-22) from three-point range against YSU’s zone defense. They were led by Anumgba’s 18 points on 4-of-8 three-point shooting. Cole scored a career-high 14 points (on 6-of-8 field goal shooting), while Fedd-Robinson recorded her first career double-double of 13 points and ten rebounds.

Toledo outrebounded Youngstown State 38-28, with 15 of those boards off the offensive glass, and as many second-chance points. Coincidentally, both teams made 26 field goals each.

Up next: Youngstown State will make a short 50-minute road trip to meet the Akron Zips on Sunday, November 30 for a 12:00 ET tip-off at James A. Rhodes Arena.