The Youngstown State Penguins women’s basketball team (25-9, 15-5 Horizon) led by seven at the break, but pulled away in the second half in a 61-42 home win over the Maryland Eastern Shore Hawks (20-15, 11-3 MEAC) in the second round of the 2026 Postseason WNIT on Tuesday night. This contest marked the first time that the Penguins and Hawks have ever faced off against each other.
It’s Youngstown State’s 25th win of the season, which is the second most in program history. Also, YSU extends its season to a school record 35 games with the win. The Penguin women earned their first WNIT win since 2013 and their postseason victory in any tournament since 2016.
“We weren’t happy with how we came out of the half in the Horizon League Tournament,” said Penguins head coach Melissa Jackson regarding her team’s last action, exactly two weeks ago. “So again, challenged them, talked to them about that, how we had to be better, and how important that was. I thought our kids were really locked in and focused [tonight]. They had a little bit more of a sense of urgency. You know, I thought our defense was really solid all night. I think we upped the outrebounding there, definitely in the second half, and just the ball movement in the second half. We really got back to what we do best with our transition offense, moving the ball, 19 assists to their four assists. Just was really crisp coming out of halftime.”
YSU made 43.6 percent (24-of-55) of their overall shots, 38.1 percent (8-of-21) of their threes, and 71.4 percent (5-of-7) of their foul shots, while outrebounding UMES 39-35. Sophia Gregory led YSU with 13 points, Danielle Cameron and Sarah Baker scored 12 points each, and Paulina Hernandez added 11 points and two blocks off the bench. Casey Santoro scored seven points with three assists, while Erica King had six points and as many assists. Santoro and King each pulled down five boards, Cameron pulled down seven rebounds of her own, and Baker recorded six boards and four dimes.
Interestingly, Hernandez ended each of the first two quarters with buzzer beaters, set up by Santoro.
“Casey kind of just gave me the ball, and she told me what to do, and I was just doing it,” Hernandez said of the plays. “The first time, she told me to drive, and I had confidence, and I just drove. The second time, I didn’t really have time to think. So I just shot it, banked it.”
Malikah Willis’ UMES squad bowed out of the WNIT with, arguably, their best season in program history. Brianna Barnes led all scorers with 14 points, Dakerian Turner had 10 points and 12 rebounds, and Kaliya Perry finished with four points and 10 boards. The Hawks made a solid 76.9 percent (10-of-13) of their free throws, but they shot just 27.3 percent (15-of-55) from the field and 16.7 percent (2-of-12) from downtown.
UMES held YSU to six points in the first eight-and-a-half minutes thanks to some stifling defense, and led 10-6 following a pair of made free throws from Turner with 1:52 left in the first quarter, but Hernandez and Baker combined to record the final six points of the period to give the home team a slight 12-10 advantage.
The Penguins never trailed in the game again, pushing their lead to eight at 18-10 with 7:26 to go in the second quarter, courtesy of back-to-back triples from Santoro and King. Those shots capped off a 12-0 run for YSU, and prompted a Hawks timeout. Youngstown State was up by at least four points for the rest of the night, and Hernandez’s second buzzer beater gave YSU a 24-17 lead at the intermission.
Forty-seven seconds into the second half, Baker hit a pair of foul shots to make it 26-17 YSU. After being held scoreless in the first half, Cameron recorded her first points of the night after hitting a three-pointer at the 8:15 mark to give Youngstown State its first double-digit margin at 29-17, which also capped off a 7-0 run. Ashanti Lynch’s three-point play got the Hawks going as they went on to score eight of the next 12 points later in the third quarter, and trailed by eight at that point, 33-25, but a Gregory layup and another Cameron three increased the home team’s lead back up to 38-25 with 3:51 to go in the period.
Consecutive baskets by Lynch and Barnes cut the deficit down to three possessions at 38-29 with 3:04 to go, but Youngstown State ended the period on a 9-0 run over the last 2:47 with three consecutive three-balls: one from King and the next two from Cameron. As a result, YSU was up by six possessions at 47-29, largely thanks to Cameron’s four triples in the third quarter alone.
“The whole season, we haven’t had two weeks off,” Cameron said. “We’ve been pretty much going nonstop, so it was definitely different. But we focused a lot on us. We didn’t know our opponent for a while, so we did a lot on us in practice. We got rest that we needed, and I think we’re a little rusty, which it did show. But I think we did a good job coming out in the third quarter. I think in the Horizon League Tournament, that was something that we didn’t really do very good on. So we focused on that, and we really executed, which helped us stretch the lead in that third.”
The Hawks scored the first five points of the fourth quarter, with the first three coming from Turner and a fastbreak layup from Kalise Hill to make it a 47-34 deficit. However, YSU scored the next five points with a Hernandez layup and a Santoro triple at the 5:41 mark, which gave the home team a 52-34 lead.
Youngstown State’s largest advantage was 20 after Gregory scored five straight points by herself, making it 59-39 at the 1:55 mark.
Up next: The Penguins advance to the WNIT Super 16 round and will host the Marshall Thundering Herd on Friday night for a 6:30 p.m. tip-off inside Zidian Family Arena at Beeghly Center. Marshall, led by head coach Juli Fulks, is 24-9 on the season and earned a 66-53 victory over UMBC in the second round of the WNIT this past Monday.
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