The Youngstown State basketball teams got swept on their home court Saturday afternoon at Zidian Family Arena at Beeghly Center, marking the second time this season that both teams have lost games on the same day.
The women’s basketball team (17-8, 10-5 Horizon) suffered a tough 54-51 defeat against defending women’s champion Green Bay (20-5, 15-0 Horizon) in a battle of the conference’s top two teams, while the comeback for the men’s team (12-13, 5-9 Horizon) fell short in their 72-66 defeat at the hands of the Robert Morris Colonials (16-10, 8-7 Horizon) — the defending men’s champions.
In the women’s game, YSU had its four-game winning streak snapped in its annual Pink Game. The Penguins made 53.9 percent (7-of-13) of their shots in the second period and shot 36.7 percent (22-of-60) overall for the game while also making just 17.2 percent (5-of-29) of their triples. They outrebounded the Phoenix 36-31 and recorded a plus-one turnover margin (15-14).
“I want to just thank the city of Youngstown for coming out tonight,” women’s head coach Melissa Jackson said. “Unbelievable atmosphere in this gym, and our kids really deserve that. They’ve been playing well, definitely had a sixth man today. But yeah, we’re definitely disappointed. Literally two months ago, we played them [Green Bay] up at their place, and I told you how disappointed but encouraged I was after that meeting because we were neck and neck with them. But then in that second half, we folded up there. There were multiple opportunities today where our team could’ve folded, but we have grown so much in two months.”
Sarah Baker led all scorers with 18 points on 8-of-13 shooting. “We’re really disappointed because we were right with them, and I think that this game was completely different than the first game that we played them,” she said about both of YSU’s games against Green Bay this season. “That’s kind of what made us want it more because we’re a completely different team, and I think we know that we can play with them. So definitely, the outcome was pretty disappointing, but I think it’s something we can definitely learn from in the long run. I think this game, we shouldn’t lay our heads low because we are a lot better than we were when we first played them.”
Erica King scored a dozen points of her own, while Sophia Gregory and Casey Santoro scored nine points each. Santoro also pulled down seven rebounds and dished out five assists, while Gregory grabbed five boards and blocked a career-high five shots.
Green Bay — who is still undefeated in conference play and winners of 12 in a row — shot 40 percent from the field (20-of-50), 38.5 percent from three-point territory (5-of-13) and 62.9 percent (9-for-13) at the foul line. Jenna Guyer led GB with 16 points and pulled down seven rebounds, while Meghan Schultz scored 14 points and shot 6-of-8 from the field.
Although both teams held opponents below an average of 58 points per game heading into the day, the first period was an offensive show, with Green Bay leading 19-11 following five unanswered points courtesy of a layup from Kamy Peppler and a three-point play by Guyer at the 2:25 mark.
Back-to-back buckets from Baker and King cut the deficit down to four before Guyer made two free throws to end the period, and Green Bay led 21-15 at the end of the first quarter. Baker scored eight of her 18 points in the first eight minutes of the game.
In the second quarter, both defenses tightened up with eight total points scored in the first five minutes, and the Penguins took their first lead of the day at 27-26 after back-to-back three-pointers from King and Gregory at the 2:58 mark, which ended an 11-2 run for YSU over a 5:12 span.
There were a total of five more lead changes over the last 2:31 of the first half, and Kamy Peppler’s bucket with four seconds before halftime gave Green Bay the 32-31 advantage.
Baker scored on YSU’s first possession of the second half to put her squad up 33-32 just 17 seconds in, but that ended up being Youngstown State’s lone lead of the quarter. Schultz scored the next three points before Santoro’s bucket tied it up at 35-all at the 7:11 mark, but YSU went scoreless for the next 5:18, which allowed Green Bay to go on a 7-0 run and take a 42-35 lead with 4:13 left. The run started with free throws from Carley Duffney, followed by a Peppler three and a Schultz layup. YSU held Green Bay without a single point for the rest of the quarter, and Gregory ended the Penguins’ scoreless drought by scoring the last two buckets of the third stanza to bring them within one possession at 42-39 entering the fourth quarter.
King hit a triple just 37 seconds into the fourth quarter to knot it up at 42-all. Schultz and Baker traded baskets before a jumper from Julianna Ouimette gave the Phoenix the 46-44 advantage at the 7:15 mark. YSU then recorded their second 7-0 run of the day to take a 51-46 lead with a step-back three from Santoro, followed by consecutive buckets by Gregory and Baker with 3:21 left.
But unfortunately, the Penguins would not score in the game again, which allowed Guyer to go on her own personal 8-0 run. Guyer began her game-ending dominance with a three-pointer before recording a tip-in of her own miss to tie it up at 51. Guyer then went on defense and blocked Baker’s go-ahead bucket at the 1:23 mark before going back on offense, setting a textbook screen, and knocking down the game-winning trey with 14.9 seconds remaining.
Guyer and Peppler both fouled defensively to take time off the clock before Peppler stole King’s inbounds pass with 9.4 to go. Baker and Santoro each committed two fouls and sent Guyer to the charity stripe, and Guyer missed both attempts with 4.7 seconds remaining. Youngstown State then called a 30-second timeout to advance the ball further to the frontcourt, but King’s contested game-tying three-pointer bounced off the side of the rim to end it.
In the men’s game, both squads recorded 14 points in the paint. YSU shot 47.1 percent (27-of-57) on field goals, 26.1 percent (6-of-23) on three-balls, and 75 percent (6-of-8) on free throws. Cris Carroll scored 13 of his 20 points in the second half to lead the Penguin men, with 16 points coming from Bryson Dawkins and a dozen points off the bench for Tae Blackshear. Imanuel Zorgvol also scored eight points off the bench while blocking three shots.
“We have to play more consistent basketball throughout the 40 minutes of the game,” men’s head coach Ethan Faulkner stated. “Can’t play in spurts. When we do what we’re supposed to do, we’re a pretty good team. When we don’t do what we’re supposed to do, we’re not a very good team.”
Robert Morris shot 58.6 percent (17-of-28) from the field in the first half and 46.7 percent (28-of-60) for the game while also making 38.5 percent (10-of-26) of their triples and 85.7 percent (6-of-7) of their foul shots. They also outrebounded YSU 35-21. DeSean Goode led all scorers with 24 points and had seven rebounds. 16 points and six assists for Ryan Prather, Jr., 12 points off the bench for Darius Livingston, and 10 points for Kaleb Brown. Nikolaos Chitikoudis led RMU with a game-high nine rebounds in addition to scoring four first-half points.
YSU and Robert Morris went back and forth through the first 7:36 of the contest, totaling six ties and four lead changes to make it 17 all. Robert Morris then went on to score 15 of the next 21 points over a 6:11 span to go up nine at 32-23, which was capped off by back-to-back buckets from Chitikoudis. YSU scored five of the next seven points with a three from Carroll that trimmed the deficit to two possessions at 34-28, but the Colonials scored seven of the next nine points in the last 2:01 of the first half to go up 41-30 at the intermission.
The Penguins scored 16 of the first 18 points, including a 10-0 run, over the first 7:03 of the second half to turn that 11-point halftime deficit into a one-possession lead at 46-43 with 12:57 to go. Their 10-0 run started with a Jason Nelson layup, a three-point play from Carroll, a putback by Dawkins off his own miss, another Nelson layup, and another Carroll bucket.
After a basket by Goode cut the deficit to one, YSU scored nine unanswered points with a Zorgvol putback and back-to-back threes from Blackshear to go up 54-45 at the 10:22 mark. Goode scored the next five points before Blackshear nailed his third triple of the half at the 8:06 mark to push YSU’s lead to eight at 57-49.
However, the Colonials responded in a big way with a 12-0 run over a 3:05 span to regain the 61-57 advantage at the 4:02 point. It began with both a three-pointer and a three-point play from Goode, followed by back-to-back bombs from Livingston and Prather.
Zorgvol then made a layup before a triple from Brown made it 64-59 RMU with 3:14 left. Carroll got fouled by Chitikoudis and hit three clutch free throws to make it a two-point game at 64-62 with 1:18 left, but a three-pointer from Goode and a three-point play from Prather Jr. — all within a 32-second stint — put the cream cheese on the bagel.
The women will conclude their three-game homestand as they host Robert Morris on Wednesday for a 6:30 p.m. tip-off inside Zidian Family Arena at Beeghly Center, while the men will visit Oakland on Thursday for a 7 p.m. tipoff at the OU Credit Union O’rena in Rochester, MI.
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