Nelson’s 21 Points Dwarfed by Gregory’s Career Day, ‘Dons Fall Again at Home to YSU

Fort Wayne, IN – It was the annual Pink Out game for Purdue Fort Wayne (16-12, 10-8 Horizon League) on Saturday in which the Youngstown State Penguins (21-8, 14-5 Horizon League) came into Fort Wayne looking to sweep the season series and lock up the second seed in the Horizon League tournament with a win. Sophia Gregory made it happen for the Penguins, using an incredible 37-point, 19-rebound performance to seal a 76-71 win for Youngstown State. The Mastodons fall for the second straight game and slip farther away from the coveted top 3 seed for the Horizon League tournament.

The Mastodons would play great defense early in the game. The Mastodons would record four steals in the first four minutes of the game with Alana Nelson and Lili Krasovec each getting a steal in the post and Lauren Lee getting two of her own on the perimeter. Three of the four steals would lead directly to points on the other end for Purdue Fort Wayne. It would be an early 11-4 Mastodon lead, but this is all the farther that the Mastodons could separate themselves in the women’s edition of this year’s Ice Age Bowl.

The Penguins would fight their way back to a single possession game, but could never take the lead in the first quarter. As the first quarter was winding down, Gregory would grab her seventh rebound of the quarter on a Jordan Reid miss with eight seconds left. Gregory would take the ball down the court and put up a shot that would appear that it had no chance, and it didn’t. It completely missed everything… except teammate Sarah Baker’s hands below the basket who had just enough time to flip it up and in before the buzzer. The officiating call went to the monitor during the quarter break to review, and it took them nearly the entire quarter break to determine that Baker’s basket would stand. The Mastodons would lead 18-16 after 10 minutes of play.

The first half of the second quarter would be back and forth between the two teams hinting at the theme for the remainder of the game. Nelson would hit a fade away shot in the paint for Purdue Fort Wayne, but then Baker and Gregory would return the favor with scores of their own to knot the game up at 20-20. The Penguins would take their first lead at 23-22 with Erica King hitting from beyond the arc, but then the Mastodons’ Destiny Macharia would cut through the defense for a driving layup to take the lead right back.

As the first half clock was winding down, Casey Santoro would break down the Mastodons’ defense and get into the paint. She would gather herself and find Danielle Cameron leaking out to the corner. Cameron would let it fly and the ball would whip the net up around the rim as the buzzer sounded, and the Penguins would take a 41-36 lead into the break. Led by Gregory’s 17 points and eight rebounds in the first, the Penguins would have probably liked to be farther ahead than just a five point lead. The Mastodons’ Macharia was doing the heavy lifting on the other end to be the remaining pulse that PFW had, finishing with 13 points in the half. No other player on either side would be in double figures. YSU would make one more shot (17-of-33) in the first half than Purdue Fort Wayne (16-of-35), but the early four steals and subsequent points in the first quarter by PFW allowed the first half to stay as a manageable deficit.

Out of the break, the Mastodons used a quick spark to get back into the lead. On a out of bounds set, Reid slipped by all defenders and teammates to find herself wide open under the hoop for the easy lay in to get the deficit down to one. The nearest four people (three being her own teammates) were at the free throw line. Nelson would slowly get heated up over the third quarter to get back to a scoring total that matches a Horizon League Player of the Year caliber resume. Her lone three-pointer from the left wing would get the crowd in Gates Sports Center back on their feet as the Mastodons would now lead 47-45 with six minutes left to play in the third quarter.

On the other end, the Mastodons would play some great defense for 29 seconds to force YSU to turn the ball over, not from a shot clock violation, but by simply stepping out of bounds before they could even attempt a shot. On the following trip down the floor, Bess would hit another three-pointer to add to the lead. Nelson would then add to the lead with two free throws after a hard foul by Gregory. Paulina Hernandez would stop the bleeding for YSU with a layup to end the Mastodon run.

At the end of the third quarter, Nelson and Gregory would go at each other on each end of the floor. Nelson would score a post shot through Gregory’s arms to give the Mastodons a five point lead, but Gregory would return the favor with a nearly identical shot over Nelson on the other end to make it 55-58 in favor of the Mastodons at the end of the quarter. The Mastodons would shoot 56.3% in the quarter and outscore the Penguins 22-14 in the third.

Gregory and Nelson would again go at each other trading baskets through and over defenders. With 3:06 remaining in the game, the Penguins would take the lead in the 15th lead change of the game with Gregory’s 29th points with a shot under the hoop to make it 65-64 Penguins. Gregory would then make the next eight of night points for the Penguins fighting off the Mastodons best efforts to climb back into this game. Bess would get fouled on a three-point attempt and make all attempts at the line. Jordan Reid would grab the Penguins’ ensuing miss and go the distance of the floor and get fouled on her attempt at the hoop. She would make both attempts at the stripe as well.

Down three, the Mastodons resorted to fouling to get the ball back to score. They sent King to the line where she would miss both attempts. When Krasovec grabbed the rebound, the ‘Dons would call a timeout to draw up a play. Macharia would then attempt a three to tie that would hit every part of the rim and backboard and some parts twice. The only part it didn’t hit was the bottom of the net.

Gregory would get fouled again to hit the line again. After her to makes at the stripe, the Mastodons would call yet another timeout to advance the ball. Macharia would get a quick basket out of the timeout to bring it back to a deficit of three. Youngstown State would call a timeout to advance the ball and force the Mastodons into another foul where Santoro would ice the game, and the Penguins would secure the 76-71 win.

Each coach had respect for the other team and coach and the way they built their program. Youngstown State’s head coach, Melissa Jackson, said she has “a lot of respect for Purdue Fort Wayne. Maria’s done an unbelievable job building this program the right way, and they are tough. I knew it was going to be a tough game, it always it. To win here, at Gates, is a statement win for our program.”

On the other end, Marchesano gave credit to the Penguins’ basketball IQ – “Obviously tough loss at home, but Youngstown is a really good team. They’re playing really well right now. They’re peaking at the right time, and they have some very tough matchups. The thing about Youngstown is that they’re just smarter than us at every position. If we did something good, they’d take advantage of it next time and do something better. If we did something bad, they made us pay, and that’s what high IQ does. It’s not that we don’t have IQ, it’s just that we don’t have that experience to use the IQ yet to be sharp with our reads and make teams pay. That’s what we had last year, and that’s what’s going on with Youngstown right now.”

The obviously Player of the Game award went to Gregory with her final stat line of 37 points, 19 rebounds (3 OREB), three assists, three steals, and two blocked shots. The 37 points and 19 rebounds both are the highest of their respective categories recorded by a Horizon League player this season. The 37 points surpasses the 35 points scored by Northern Kentucky’s Karina Bystry against PFW late in January. Gregory was tied for the season rebounding record with her 17 rebounds one game ago against Northern Kentucky with Milwaukee’s Jorey Buwalda (twice recorded 17 rebounds). Gregory’s 16 made field goals also are a new season high for the Horizon League surpassing IU Indy’s Nevaeh Foster’s 12 from mid-November.

When asked about the gameplan, Gregory had a simple answer of “just getting a win”. Coming off two previous road games at IU Indy and Northern Kentucky, Gregory “knew that [YSU] were tired, but once [YSU] was on the floor, the energy came back.” Gregory wasn’t thinking that she had to have a career day to beat the ‘Dons, but head coach Jackson spoke about Gregory’s unselfishness and team first attitude – “Sophia’s the most unselfish kid I’ve ever met. She would much rather pass and have the spotlight on somebody else. I know 100% she did this ‘for her team’ because she is the most team player I have ever coached.”

“Obviously, very tough for us on a one day prep to prepare for a potent offensive team, but I thought our kids continued to get better and better throughout the season. [The short turnaround] actually made this game a little easier because we’ve seen so many actions recently, and our defense has really improved. So, I’m very proud our group, their grittiness, and their toughness.”

If that was a tired Gregory and team, what does a refreshed and well prepared Gregory and team play like? Horizon League fans will find that out now that the Penguins have secured their bye in the tournament by locking in the two seed with the win.

Not that Gregory needed a ton of help, the scoring from the rest of the Penguins was pretty balanced. Santoro was the only other player from YSU in double figures. Santoro also grabbed seven rebounds, flirting with a double-double of her own. Forward Sarah Baker only scored seven points in the contest, but facilitated very well from the high post matching her point total with assists.

The Mastodons were led offensively by Nelson’s 21 points on 9-of-16 shooting from the field. Bess and Macharia were the other two ‘Dons in double figures with 14 and 15 points, respectively. The rebounding in the game was actually very close despite Gregory’s monster game with YSU narrowly winning the rebounding battle 38-37. The ‘Dons shared the rebounding duties fairly evenly with Reid notching a team high eight rebounds, Bess and Krasovec each recording six rebounds, and Nelson grabbing five. Bess accredits this higher rebounding total to the team’s want to “buy in” during the film sessions and seeing all the times earlier in the season that they did a poor job of rebounding.

As a team, the Mastodons shot a decent 41.4% from the floor, making 29 of their 70 attempts. From the outside, the ‘Dons have continued to struggle. Only Bess and Nelson were able to connect from three-point distance, combining for four three-pointers on twenty attempts. The Mastodon faithful probably are still getting used to this change from last year’s sharp shooting squad, but the person this probably affects the most is coach Marchesano – “It’s probably been an adjustment for probably me, more than anyone, because when I’m looking at my call sheet, I’m second guessing the actions that we’ve relied on for threes.” However, Nelson and Bess both expressed the gratitude they have towards the staff in believing in the two to continue to shoot the ball at a high rate. Nelson said, “The coaches tell me every day they have confidence in me shooting it, but at my last school I didn’t shoot from the outside very much. I did if they needed me to, but this is new for me.” This is the first time that Purdue Fort Wayne has lost back to back home games since the 2022-2023 season when it happened on three separate occasions.

Two games remain for the Mastodons, and both games are a must win if the ‘Dons want to capture the third seed in the Horizon League tournament. Fortunately for Purdue Fort Wayne, the next game is against Milwaukee. The ‘Dons took care of the Panthers at home earlier this season for a 70-60 win, and the Panthers are currently riding a 5-game losing streak with an average margin of defeat of 19.4 points per game.

Unfortunately for Purdue Fort Wayne, the last game of the season is a matchup against regular season champion Green Bay. In their first matchup, the Phoenix took a 15-point victory in Green Bay. The Mastodons historically have struggled against Green Bay, only winning once in their 16 attempts. The Mastodons’ game against the Panthers will take place on Wednesday at 6:00pm ET. The game will be broadcasted on ESPN+.