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YSU women rally, but fall short again

By John Vargo 4 min read

YOUNGSTOWN -- Youngstown State has fought all season. Injuries. Injuries. And, more injuries.

Despite that, the Penguins women's basketball team came up just short against Milwaukee on Saturday, 78-74.

YSU (7-14, 3-7 Horizon League) went on a 19-9 run capped by Melinda Trimmer's 3-pointer with eight seconds remaining to cut the Panthers lead to 76-74.

"It's sad that we step up when we need to when we're down," said Alison Smolinski, who had seven points in the run. "We need to start doing that throughout the whole game."

Sierra Ford-Washington, who had 18 points in the game, made two shots at the foul line with five seconds remaining to put the game away for Milwaukee (15-6, 7-3).

YSU coach John Barnes, who has seen his top three returning players -- Nikki Arbanas, Kelsea Newman and Sarah Cash -- go down with knee injuries, saw three more injured during this homestand.

Six-foot-3 freshman Mary Dunn, YSU's leading scorer this season, sprained her ankle in the first half of Thursday's loss to Green Bay and is out indefinitely. Then, at halftime Saturday, senior Jenna Hirsch had her back bothering her again and couldn't play the final 20 minutes.

If Hirsch is out, YSU is down to eight scholarship players and two walk-ons. Freshman Jen Oduho (5-11) is also out for the season with a leg injury. That would leave Smolinski, India Benjamin, Mailee Jones, Trimmer, Izzy Meese, Natalie Myers, Morgan Olson, Morgan Brunner, Kelley Wright and Tamira Ford. Meese and Brunner are walk-ons.

"I don't know if we can practice now," Barnes said. "I'm proud of the kids for fighting as hard as they could. We gave ourselves a chance, despite everything that happened. I'm proud of them for that."

In the first half, Milwaukee went on a 13-0 run, and held YSU scoreless for 6:12 in the second quarter to go up 33-21. Then, Hirsch had two free throws with 1:32 left before halftime and Smolinski added a 3-pointer as the Penguins trailed 33-26 at the break.

Milwaukee's Steph Kostowicz, a 6-2 forward, had 13 points for the Panthers in the half, while Ford-Washington added 11. The two combined for 12 of the team's 21 rebounds at the break.

Kostowicz ended with a game-high 22 points, while Jenny Lindner had 20 and Bailey Farley added 12.

Olson had a career-high 20 points for YSU, tied with game-high honors with Smolinski. Benjamin added 10.

"I was glad I could take advantage of the opportunity," Olson said. "It sucks that Mary hurt her ankle, but we're hoping she gets back in here and gets into it. I wanted to go out and do my best for the team."

The 6-foot Olson was more of a spark than she knew. Olson and Ford are two of teams remaining forwards, along with Myers. Ford added seven points.

The size disadvantage hurt YSU as Milwaukee held a 42-22 advantage in points in the paint.

"Without her offensively, we would've grinded to a halt for the most part," Barnes said of Olson. "I thought she did a good job of posting up strong and getting the ball and making strong moves in there. Very proud of her in her first start."

Olson hopes YSU doesn't have to play from behind going forward, like it did Saturday.

"A lot of these games we've got into a hole. Then at the end we came back and fought," Olson said. "It's been really close. We need to make sure we put it all together and we're playing all the minutes just as hard as the last."

The Penguins begin a four-game road trip Thursday against Valparaiso, starting at 8 p.m.

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