YSU Women Defeat Wright State 76-60

The Youngstown State Penguins women’s basketball team (23-8, 15-5 Horizon) used a big second half to earn a 76-60 win over the Wright State Raiders (10-22, 6-14 Horizon) in the first round of the 2026 Barbasol Horizon League Women’s Basketball Championship at Zidian Family Arena at Beeghly Center on Wednesday night.

YSU shot 45.5 percent (25-of-55) from the field, 43.5 percent (10-of-23) on threes, and an outstanding 94.1 percent (16-of-17) on free throws while committing just eight turnovers as a unit.

Erica King led all scorers with 19 points to go along with a career-high five steals and even tied another career-high with four made threes in 10 attempts. “Because they were on Casey [Santoro] as much, my coach already told me, ‘You will have to go take the ball and bring it up sometimes,'” she said after the game. “So I was already prepared to just be able to bring it up, run a couple plays, and I’m just happy I was able to do that for my team.”

13 points, five rebounds, and six assists for Sophia Gregory; 12 points, six assists, and two steals for Casey Santoro; 10 points for Sarah Baker; and eight points each for Paulina Hernandez and Hayden Barrier.

Santoro scored 10 of her 12 points at the foul line and went a perfect 10-of-10 at the stripe. All eight of Barrier’s points came in the fourth quarter, while Hernandez pulled down seven boards and rejected two shots.

“I loved Erica’s aggressiveness,” Penguins head coach Melissa Jackson said regarding King’s performance. “She’s been playing really well for us all year; she’s shooting the ball really well. I thought she looked confident out there, and she’s always someone that we can put on Breezie [Williams] at different points. We started with Casey [Santoro] on her, but then obviously went to Erica at times, especially when we switched some of our ball screen defense.”

Kari Hoffman’s Wright State squad, which had its season come to an end, outrebounded Youngstown State 36-29. They made 37.7 percent (23-of-61) of their field goals, 33.3 percent (7-of-21) of their three-pointers, and 87.5 percent (7-of-8) of their foul shots. Breezie Williams led the Raiders in double-figure scoring with 14 points (6-of-14 FG), while Maja Dilen tied her career-high of 11 points off the bench – which is her third 11-point game of the season. Lauren Scott and Ellie Magestro-Kennedy contributed 10 points each, with four points and a game-high 10 rebounds for Claire Henson, and six points and nine rebounds for Grace Okih.

“Breezie is a really good player,” Jackson said regarding Williams. “This is a tough team to guard because of their ability to shoot the three, because of Breezie’s ability in a ball screen.”

WSU led 5-2 after a three from Magestro-Kennedy, but YSU scored the next eight straight points with back-to-back threes from King and Gregory, followed by a Gregory layup that made it 10-5 lead halfway through the opening stanza.

YSU’s largest lead in the quarter was 20-13 on a Gregory bucket with 1:11 to go in the period, but Scott hit a three after an offensive rebound from Elaina Rager to cut the margin down to two possessions at 20-16 before the quarter ended.

The Raiders scored nine of the first 11 points of the second quarter to take a 25-22 lead, with Williams scoring seven points in that stretch alone. King made a pair of free throws with 5:39 remaining to stop a 2:45 scoring drought, and the two teams traded one-point leads for the rest of the half, with Baker scoring the last bucket of the first 20 minutes to give the home team a 30-29 lead heading into the locker room. 

Wright State held a 20-7 rebounding edge at one point in the first half, and the Raiders were 4-for-11 from beyond the arc in the first half. Youngstown State closed the rebounding gap to 36-29 by the end of the game, and Wright State was 1-for-7 from long distance in the fourth quarter as YSU put the finishing touches on a first-round win.

King hit back-to-back bombs in the first minute and 20 seconds of the second half to cap off an 8-0 run and grow YSU’s lead to 36-29. The Penguins led by seven on two more occasions at 38-31 and 40-33 before Wright State howled at the moon and attempted a comeback. Scott’s three-pointer and Rylee Sagester’s layup trimmed the deficit to 40-38, and the margin was just at two yet again at 45-43 with 3:22 remaining after a triple from Olivia Brown. The Penguins went on to score the final eight points of the quarter on back-to-back three-pointers from Hernandez and Cameron, along with two free throws from Santoro. As a result, YSU waddled back and led by double-digits at 53-43.

King scored on the first offensive possession of the fourth stanza to increase that lead to 12. Later on, consecutive shots from Gregory and a Hernandez basket made it 59-45 with 7:52 remaining. Wright State then scored eight unanswered points to get within two possessions at 59-53 with 5:57 left courtesy of back-to-back layups from Scott and Dilen, followed by a pair of free throws from Henson and another bucket from Magestro-Kennedy.

However, Barrier stepped up and went in full takeover mode by scoring eight of the next 10 points on her own. The sophomore buried a big-time trey-ball to increase the margin to three possessions before answering an Okih bucket with five straight points with another three-ball and two free throws at the 3:09 mark to make it 67-55 in favor of the home team.

“I think we were doing a really good job of communicating the digs, and that’s why those shots were there,” she said regarding her fourth-quarter masterpiece. “Big shout out to Sarah [Baker] for getting the ball out to me when she noticed the dig, but I think we were just playing together and communicating well.”

Wright State got no closer than nine points for the final stages of the contest. Each team recorded 24 points in the paint and 16 bench points.

Youngstown State will advance to the semifinals of the tournament for the first time since the 2018-19 season and will play third-seeded Cleveland State on Monday at 2:30 p.m. at Corteva Coliseum in Indianapolis.