The Youngstown State Penguins women’s basketball team (11-4, 4-1 Horizon) made it a Manic Monday for the Oakland Golden Grizzlies (4-11, 1-4 Horizon) with a dominant 81-58 victory at Zidian Family Arena at Beeghly Center. It’s the fourth consecutive win for YSU, who are in third place in the Horizon League standings.
There were six lead changes in the first 4:27 of the contest, and YSU was up 16-12 thanks to a shot from Sarah Baker at the 1:13 mark, but Oakland tied it up at 16-all with back-to-back layups from Angie Smith and Layla Gold to end the period. Ironically, Oakland scored all 16 of their first quarter points in the paint. Baker and Gold scored eight points each for their respective teams in that period, but Baker went a perfect 4-for-4 on field goal attempts.
Just 40 seconds into the second stanza, YSU went up 19-16 following a three from Erica King and ended up leading for the rest of the game. Both teams then traded buckets, starting with Smith, countered by Sophia Gregory, and answered back by Gold before Gregory converted a three-point play to make it 24-20 YSU at the 7:23 mark. After a layup by Oakland’s Makenzie Luehring, the Penguins waddled with an 8-0 run to go up 32-24 at the 4:35 mark courtesy of six straight points from King, followed by a fastbreak layup from Baker off a steal and an assist from Brooke Adkins. Eventually, the Penguins would head into the locker room with a 42-30 lead at the intermission. In that period, YSU outscored Oakland 26-14, with King scoring half of her team’s points.
In the middle of the 3rd quarter, the Golden Grizzlies trailed by 16 at 53-37 at the 4:52 mark following a three from Danielle Cameron and a layup from Gregory. But Oakland scored eight of the next 10 points and cut YSU’s lead down to three possessions at 55-46 with 1:13 to go, with Smith scoring six points in that span. However, Baker’s layup put the Penguins’ lead back at 11 at 57-46 after 30 minutes of play.
Oakland hit nine of their 12 foul shot attempts in the third stanza, with Gold going 5-for-6 at the line in her own right.
Baker’s layup at the end of the third quarter carried over to the fourth and started a 7-0 run for YSU with a King three and a Gregory jumper, making it 62-46 at the 8:32 mark. Oakland managed to score nine of the next 11 points as Lianna Baxter scored five points in that run before Luehring’s steal and fastbreak layup made it a nine-point deficit at 64-55 with 6:44 to go.
However, Melissa Jackson’s team pulled away at the very end and answered with seven straight points: another three from King, followed by a Paulina Hernandez tip-in and free throws from Adkins, to make it 71-55 with 5:21 remaining.
Luehring scored Oakland’s last trio of points on the night with another coast-to-coast layup and a free throw to make it a 71-58 deficit at the 4:37 mark, but the Penguins waddled away with a 10-0 run to end the night courtesy of back-to-back triples from Hernandez and consecutive layups from Gregory and King to put the stamp on the envelope.
“I thought we just played harder, honestly,” Jackson said after the game. “I want to give Oakland some credit. I thought they came in, they played really hard. They did some things schematically, very different than what we’ve seen, so give their coaching staff some credit there. But very, very proud of our team for their response. We talked a lot about response in timeouts and halftime, and I thought our group really did that. Then again, you saw our ability to close games, right? The moment’s not too big for any of them. I thought they hit big shots, I thought we got big stops. We stopped fouling and stopped putting them at the line, and then I knew at some point, it was gonna go to the zone and held out, and I think that threw them off a little bit there at the end.”
Youngstown State shot 48.5 percent (33-of-68) on field goals, 40.9 percent (9-of-22) on threes, and 66.7 percent (6-of-9) on free throws while also outrebounding Oakland 51-37.
King, a sophomore, was truly queen of the court on Monday with career-highs of 23 points, eight rebounds, nine made field goals in 16 tries, and four made threes in five attempts. She also dished out five assists along with a pair of steals. “Right now, I’m playing with a lot of confidence,” King said regarding her career game. “But my confidence really comes from my team and my coaches, who have confidence in me, and I just believe I can do anything with their confidence, too.”
Gregory, another sophomore who grabbed eight rebounds and a pair of steals as well, finished with 15 points on 7-of-12 shooting from the field, along with three blocks. “Honestly, we knew that we were playing a little separated,” she said. “We talked about it, we came together, we locked in. Obviously, we weren’t playing our best scrambled. We realized like, ‘This is a league game, like on our court. We cannot give this up.’ And everyone came together as one.”
In addition, Hernandez finished one rebound shy of a double-double with 16 points (10 in the fourth quarter), plus nine boards and a pair of swats in 19 minutes off the bench. Baker finished with a dozen points of her own and shot 6-of-9 from the field in just 21 minutes, but she turned the ball over a career-high seven times. Casey Santoro only had four on 1-of-7 shooting, but she contributed in other ways with eight boards and six dimes.
Keisha Newell’s Golden Grizzlies team has now lost back-to-back contests and have also dropped seven of their last eight games. They shot a poor 34.3 percent (23-of-67) from the field, 5.6 percent (1-of-18) from three-point range, and 50 percent (11-of-22) from the charity stripe.
Luehring, a freshman, set career-highs with 20 points (8-of-18 FG) and five steals while also making Oakland’s only three of the night. Gold recorded her second double-double of the season with 17 points (6-of-17 FG), 10 rebounds, and a trio of blocked shots. Smith recorded her sixth straight double-digit scoring game with a dozen points (5-of-9 FG) along with a pair of steals, while Baxter finished one point shy of a double-double with nine points and 10 rebounds in 39 minutes of action.
Notes: For the game, both teams finished with 42 points in the paint. Also, new HoriZone Roundtable men’s basketball editor John Ostapowicz was on the call for the broadcast on ESPN Plus alongside Anthony Romo.
Up next: The Penguins’ four-game homestand begins on Thursday, January 8 as they host the Northern Kentucky Norse, with a unique tip-off time of 7:17 p.m. as part of YSU’s promotion with 7 17 Credit Union.
James Moon (CashApp): $JRMoon1991
Subscribe to our emails, and get our latest posts in your inbox, plus a weekly digest of everything we've published!
