Cameron’s Career-High Leads Penguins to Victory

The Youngstown State Penguins women’s basketball team (7-3, 2-1 Horizon) used a big second half to earn a 65-46 win over the Wright State Raiders (5-8, 1-2 Horizon) at Zidian Family Arena at Beeghly Center on Tuesday night.

YSU made its first field goal of the game on a layup from Sarah Baker, but the Penguins missed their next five shot attempts and were held scoreless for nearly three minutes. As a result, WSU went on a 7-0 run with a jumper and free throws from Claire Henson, along with a three from Breezie Williams.

Danielle Cameron put out the Raider fire with a three and a layup to make it 7-6, but a layup from WSU’s Olivia Brown extended the cushion to 9-6 at the 4:14 point. YSU scored the next five points after a steal and layup by Sophia Gregory, followed by a three from Erica King to take an 11-9 lead with 2:53 left. Williams then hit another triple before Baker and Maja Dilen traded buckets, ending with Wright State leading 14-13 after one quarter of play.

Wright State opened the second quarter by scoring five of the first seven points to push its lead to 19-15 with a layup from Abbie Riddle and a three from Rylee Sagester, forcing Penguins head coach Melissa Jackson to call a timeout within the first 1:43 of the period. Casey Santoro then nailed a WNBA-range three to beat the shot clock, but Riddle answered right back as she hit a trey ball off of the glass, as WSU was still up 22-18.

Wright State recorded its biggest lead at 27-21 with a Henson free throw, along with back-to-back layups from Williams and Dilen.

However, the Penguins waddled back in it, and then some, by ending the first half on a 10-2 burst to take a 31-29 lead at the intermission. It started when Santoro nailed her second three-pointer of the period. After another layup from Williams, YSU scored seven unanswered points through the last 2:14 of the first half with a layup and free throws by Cameron, a made foul shot from Baker, and another pair made at the line from King. The first half featured two ties and six lead changes, and neither team led by more than six points in the first 20 minutes.

Lauren Scott started off the second half with a three to give WSU a 32-31 lead, and the Penguins missed their first six shots of the second half, before Cameron’s third triple of the night helped the Penguins regain a 34-32 advantage. Wright State then scored five of the next eight points, with Ellie Magestro-Kennedy’s three-ball tying it up at 37 all at the 5:03 mark.

Following a layup from Hayden Barrier, Scott hit her second trey of the period to give the Raiders a one-point lead, at 40-39. However, YSU went on an 11-2 run over the last 3:57 of the period. They started it with their second 7-0 run of the game, including a pull-up shot from King, followed by a three-pointer from Paulina Hernandez and a layup from Gregory. As a result, the Penguins had a 46-40 advantage with 50 seconds to go and never again trailed in the game. After Magestro-Kennedy answered right back with a jumper of her own, Santoro knocked down a pair of free throws before Hernandez made a layup to beat the buzzer, making it 50-42 Penguins after the third stanza. The lead changed 10 times through the first 30 minutes.

Nobody scored in the fourth quarter until the 7:56 mark, when Santoro, Riddle, and Dilen went back and forth with layups. Then, YSU started their third 7-0 run of the game with a three-point play from Santoro, followed by back-to-back layups from Gregory and Baker. After Scott hit a pair of foul shots, YSU ended the night with three consecutive layups from Baker, Gregory, and Cameron.

Youngstown State outscored Wright State 15-4 in the period and held Kari Hoffman’s Raiders to 20.8 percent shooting (5-of-24) in the second half. YSU also won the rebound battle 38-31 over the Raiders and their five-guard starting lineup.

Cameron led all scorers with a career-high 18 points on 6-of-12 shooting to go along with three steals. “I think I talked about it in our press conference how important this week was for our young kids and Dani [Cameron] in particular,” Jackson said regarding Cameron. “She’s only a redshirt freshman, didn’t play a lot of college basketball last year, like a game and a half. So she needed that time, we needed that time in the gym to get a lot of shots up, to work on that player development. I had an inkling that she might have a good night because she practiced so well. Her shot looked fantastic this week. Hopefully, this gives her a lot of confidence because that kid can really shoot the ball, can really play, and we needed her tonight.”

Cameron’s only other double-figure scoring game of this year came in the November 3rd season opener against Thiel when she notched a dozen. “We knew that they [Wright State] were probably going to start that lineup, and then probably double down on the post,” Cameron said after the game. “We have very good post players, so we knew that coming in, and I think that they did a very good job recognizing it, listening to us when we were saying that they were doubling. Overall, it led to really good shots, and then they were in good position for offensive rebounds, which they could score on. I think at the end, especially Sarah [Baker], she had a really good job finding that when she did have a chance to go score, she really did a good job.”

YSU shot 42.9 percent (24-of-56) from the field, 38.9 percent (7-of-18) on threes, and 66.7 percent (10-of-15) on free throws. Santoro recorded 15 points, four rebounds, and four assists, while Baker contributed with nine points and eight rebounds. Gregory and King scored eight points each, with Gregory also pulling down eight boards and King grabbing seven of her own.

Wright State, which had its lowest point total of the season (42) and had a season-high of 20 turnovers, has now lost three straight games. They shot 29.6 percent (16-of-54) on field goals, 36.8 percent (7-of-19) on three-pointers, and 87.5 percent (7-of-8) on foul shots. Williams was the only Raider in double-figure scoring with 10 points (4-of-14 FG), with eight points coming from Scott, and seven points each from Henson and Riddle. Williams and Scott both shot 2-of-4 from beyond the arc.

Up next: Youngstown State will head down south to compete in the two-day FIU Holiday Classic at the Ocean Bank Convocation Center in Westchester, FL. They will face host Florida International on Friday morning at 11 a.m. and UMass on Saturday afternoon 1:30 p.m.

James Moon (CashApp): $JRMoon1991