The Youngstown State Penguins women’s basketball team (9-4, 3-1 Horizon) pulled off its biggest conference win of the season with a 70-63 defeat of the Cleveland State Vikings (12-3, 2-2 Horizon) on Monday afternoon at the Wolstein Center. It’s YSU’s first win at Cleveland State since 2022 and the Vikings’ first loss at home since February 19, 2025 against Green Bay.
The lead changed 12 times during the first 15 minutes of the contest, and the game was tied at 12 all in the first quarter, before YSU took a 23-21 lead into the locker room. After briefly falling behind again, they took the lead in the third quarter with an 8-0 run, courtesy of six straight points from Paulina Hernandez and a Sophia Gregory layup. As a result, Melissa Jackson’s squad was up 34-27 with 5:09 left in the third period and never trailed in the game again.
Cleveland State scored 13 of the last 21 third quarter points, and trailed 42-38 heading into the fourth. The margin later reached ten twice, at 57-47, and 60-50 with 2:26 remaining. During that time, the teams traded trey balls on four straight possessions, starting with the Penguins’ Danielle Cameron, followed by Macey Fegan, Casey Santoro, and Paula Pique. Then, Sarah Baker hit a shot to make it 62-53 Penguins at the 1:38 mark. Cleveland State made it a five-point deficit twice on two separate occasions within the final 18 seconds. It started with a 5-0 run, thanks to a Pique three and free throws by Izabella Zingaro and Ayisse Magassa, to make it 66-61. Santoro then made some foul shots before a Magassa layup made it 68-63 with eight seconds to go, but Gregory scored off an inbounds pass to put the cream cheese on the bagel.
Youngstown State shot 45.9 percent (28-of-61) overall from the field, 34.6 percent (9-of-26) on threes, and 62.5 percent on free throws (5-of-8). In the second half, YSU outscored Cleveland State 47-42 while making 52.9 percent (18-of-34) of their overall shots and 50 percent (6-of-12) from beyond the arc.
Hernandez, a former Viking, scored a career-high 18 points off the bench on her old home court, and went 8-for-13 from the field. Santoro also scored 18 points of her own and went 4-for-9 from beyond the three-point line while playing all 40 minutes. A dozen points came from Baker, and 11 from Cameron. Gregory filled up the stat sheet with eight points, nine rebounds, and five assists. King hit a three-pointer for her only points of the day, but she also pulled down six rebounds and dished out a career-high seven assists.
Chris Kielsmeier’s Vikings won the battles in points in the paint (34-32) and rebounding margin (39-32), but they shot 38.6 percent (22-of-57), 27.8 percent (5-of-18) from downtown, and 66.7 percent (14-of-21) from the charity stripe. Fegan and Zingaro led Cleveland State with 14 points each, and a dozen came from Jada Leonard. Pique had nine points and eight rebounds, with nine points and six rebounds off the bench coming from Magassa.
Up next: YSU will play its last non-conference game of the season as they host Salem University on Wednesday, December 31 for a 1 pm tip-off at Zidian Family Arena at Beeghly Center.
James Moon (CashApp): $JRMoon1991
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