YSU women suffer first loss of the season at Penn State
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UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- Starting off hot from the field is typically a good sign.
Gaining that early edge is sometimes what a team needs to play with confidence and momentum on the hardwood and even more so in Big Ten country.
When buckets stop falling, defensive pressure is amplified, and turnovers start piling up, it simply becomes difficult to win a basketball game.
Lessons can be learned after a loss, however; after taking a 12-point lead over Penn State, Youngstown State went nearly 20 minutes without scoring a field goal and eventually lost for the first time this season, falling to Penn State 78-58.
Even with their scoring struggles, the Penguins (8-1, 4-0) still found themselves within eight points late in the third, but a late Penn State run buried YSU early in the fourth frame.
"They turned on the full-court press, we turned it over a couple of times for easy baskets and now the whole momentum has switched," coach John Barnes said. "We got stops in that third quarter and did a good job defensively with rebounding. We were able to make a couple of shots and cut it to eight, we had the ball but then it was kinda the same."
Fifth-year Chelsea Olson kicked started the action with seven consecutive points, including a fastbreak layup after stealing the ball from Penn State's Anna Camden. Lily Ritz, who returned after missing the last three contests, capped off YSU's 14-2 run with a nice play in the post.
Size in the paint became an issue for YSU, who had to combat Ali Brigham (6-foot-4), Leilani Kapinus (5-foot-11), and Camden (6-foot-3), which forced the Penguins to work away from the basket.
"You just got to kinda adjust, I think we tried to go around them instead of through them," Barnes said. "When you try to go around, they just use their length to block you and we didn't do a good job of boxing out.
"I thought (Penn State) had players step up, and played as they should and we needed to make some more shots to stay in there and had some mental errors that we don't usually make and can't have against a Big Ten team on their floor."
The Penguins did find a way to stay in the contest by drawing fouls. With their remaining nine points from the first half coming at the charity stripe, the Penguins trailed 36-23 heading into the locker room.
With 6:01 left in the third frame, Ritz found the basket to end YSU's field goal drought, as the Penguins chipped away at the Lady Lions lead throughout the third quarter, to cut it within eight.
Penn State (6-5) scored the first 12 points of the four-quarter to put away the Penguins, who caught fire late to finish with a field goal percentage of 48.5
Senior Lindsey Mack scored a season-high nine points on a trio of threes in the second half, joining Malia Magestro and Olson with team-high honors.
With a team-shooting percentage of 27.9, frustration can sometimes set in.
"Maybe a little bit, I know for me personally when I get in, I want to do everything I can to help my team and make my first one," Mack said. "But I just think it's just important to remember the next shot in mentality, and I think our team does a really good job of reminding each other of that.
"I think it more of us getting in and going after their posts, trying to get them into foul trouble, and if our posts didn't have anything to kick it back out with an inside-out type game."
Sunday afternoon's trip to State College was the first for YSU since, and the only money game they'll play all season. They'll continue their campaign this Friday at home versus Division II Davis & Elkins at the Beeghly Center with a 7 pm tip-off.
"It's a good learning game for us against a big strong athletic team on their floor and we understand that we have to be really sharp and mentally really tough and focused and execute the game plan, and all of the above if you want to win," Barnes said.
"I think we all understand how tough it was going to be, the hard part is that we believed we could come in and do it, it hurts a little bit now. But I talked to the team a lot about its exam week, they need to focus on school and do really well on their exams. We'll try to keep practices intense, sharp, and fairly short so they do well."