The Youngstown State Penguins women’s basketball team (13-5, 6-2 Horizon) were on thin ice and trailed by as many as 15 in the third quarter, but Sarah Baker’s career game helped them waddle back late as they ended up with a 78-67 win in overtime against the Wright State Raiders (6-13, 2-6 Horizon) on Wednesday night at the Nutter Center.
It marked the first time since January 30, 2021 at Robert Morris that YSU overcame a double-digit halftime deficit, as well as their first overtime win since January 7, 2023 at Oakland.
It was truly a “pat-a-cake, pat-a-cake, Baker’s bunch” as the redshirt freshman led everyone with her first double-double of 25 points and 11 rebounds while shooting 11-of-16 from the field. Casey Santoro scored 18 points, with 13 from Sophia Gregory and 10 from Danielle Cameron. Paulina Hernandez also recorded her first-career double-double with 10 points, 10 rebounds, and two blocks in 19 minutes off the bench.
YSU won the rebounding and points in the paint battles, with both margins ending at 46-36. The Penguins shot 85.7 percent (18-of-21) at the foul line as opposed to Wright State’s 86.7 percent (13-of-15).
Ellie Magestro-Kennedy, in her first career start, led Kari Hoffman’s Raiders with a career-high 17 points. Other WSU standouts included Claire Henson (13 points and seven rebounds), Breezie Williams (12 points, five rebounds, and seven assists), Maja Dilen (a career-high 11 points), Grace Okih (nine points and seven rebounds), and Olivia Brown (a career-high seven rebounds).
The Raiders shot a solid 44.8 percent (13-of-29) in the first half and 37.3 percent (25-of-67) for the whole game. They led 14-11 at the end of the first quarter, and limited YSU to one field goal over the last 5:16 of the second quarter to extend their advantage to 35-24 at halftime.
Wright State led by 15 two separate time to start the third quarter, at 41-26 and 43-28, and the margin was 45-31 before back-to-back threes from Santoro and Cameron started a 15-6 run for Youngstown State to end the third. Those threes were YSU’s only made triples all night. Baskets by Williams and Dilen pushed the margin back to 10 twice, before back-to-back layups from Gregory and Baker ended the quarter to make it a two-possession deficit, at 49-43, heading into the final period of regulation.
The Raiders were held scoreless for the first 2:22 of the fourth, which allowed a Hernandez layup and a Cameron free throw to cut the deficit to just one possession, at 49-46, with 7:59 to go. Henson and Baker traded three-point plays 36 seconds apart to make it 52-49 WSU. Then, Cameron and Williams traded buckets to make it 54-51, but Hernandez scored the next five straight points with a three-point play and two more free throws, giving the Penguins a 56-54 advantage with 3:51 remaining. Magestro-Kennedy and Baker traded buckets on the next pair of possessions before Okih’s free throw made it a one-point deficit at 58-57.
Gregory’s bucket put YSU up 60-57 with 22.3 seconds left, but Magestro-Kennedy hit a corner three-pointer to tie it back up at 60 all with 18.1 seconds left. On YSU’s next possession, Gregory missed a potential game-winning bucket, sending this one into an extra five-minute session.
Just five seconds into overtime, a fastbreak layup from Erica King gave YSU the lead at 62-60, and they never trailed in the game again. Twenty-two seconds later, a double foul was issued to Baker and Okih, with Baker charged with a common foul and and Okih tagged with a flagrant foul. Okih then nailed both of her foul shot attempts to tie it up at 62, but Santoro nailed her free throw shots as well, before a Gregory layup followed that up to put the Penguins ahead at 66-62.
Okih and Baker then traded shots to make it 68-64. After a shot from Santoro, Dilen answered with a three-pointer to cut the YSU lead to 70-67. But the Penguins scored the last eight points of the night with a Gregory layup, four made free throws from Santoro, and two more free throws from Baker to put the cream cheese on the bagel.
Up next: Youngstown State returns home to host IU Indy on Saturday, January 17 for a 2 p.m. tip-off at Zidian Family Arenaat Beeghly Center.
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