For the first time in program history, the Youngstown State women’s basketball team punched its ticket to the Barbasol Horizon League Championship Game with a 60-55 victory over Cleveland State at Corteva Coliseum in Indianapolis.
The Penguins returned to the Horizon League Semifinals after a seven-year hiatus, and provided a dominant fourth-quarter effort that helped defeat the Vikings for the third time this season.
After the game, YSU head coach Melissa Jackson said the team relied heavily on sixth-year senior Casey Santoro whose veteran leadership helped develop a young core.
“This is a very mature basketball team for how young they are,” Jackson said. “They take care of their business [and] they lock in the scouting reports, but this has been a goal of ours ever since I stepped foot on Youngstown’s campus. [I’m] very proud that we’ll be in the championship game tomorrow.”
Defense was a point of emphasis as Youngstown State limited Cleveland State to 25% from beyond the arc as the Vikings went 4-for-16.
Offensively three Penguins scored in double figures. Danielle Cameron led the team in scoring with 16 points to go along with four rebounds, one block and a steal. Erica King followed behind Cameron with a 13 point endeavor and chipped in five rebounds.
10 of Cameron’s 16 points were scored exclusively in the fourth quarter. In her postgame interview, Cameron highlighted the team’s togetherness and ability to rally offensively despite periodic scoring droughts.
“Even though we’re young, everyone’s got a lot of maturity and we’ve been in all these situations before. We’ve come back from greater deficits [and] we’ve gone on longer scoring droughts,” Cameron said.
In the contest, Sophia Gregory was one rebound shy of a double-double as she finished the afternoon with 11 points and nine rebounds.
Despite the loss, CSU outshot YSU in the paint 21-53 compared to YSU’s 21-60. The Penguins were sent to the free-throw line 14 times with the Vikings only attempting 10 shots at the line.
Izabella Zingaro had a game-high 19 points and 14 rebounds. She was also efficient in the post to end the afternoon 8-for-11
Although this is the Penguins first trip to the Horizon League Championship Game, it’s not the program’s first appearance in a conference championship. The team’s last trip was as a member of the Mid-Continent Conference — currently known as the Summit League.
Youngstown State will face Green Bay tomorrow at noon inside Corteva Coliseum in Indianapolis.
The game will be broadcast live on ESPN2 and 570 WKBN.
Enjoyed this article? Help keep HoriZone Roundtable going.
👉 Donate here: https://horizoneroundtable.com/donate
👉 Join us on Patreon: https://patreon.com/horizoneroundtable
Subscribe to our emails, and get our latest posts in your inbox, plus a weekly digest of everything we've published!
