YSU women steamroll St. Francis (Pa.) 81-41 to win 6th straight
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YOUNGSTOWN -- It's been a string of blowout wins in recent weeks for the Youngstown State women's basketball team, and Friday evening was the latest.
Against an outmatched St. Francis (Pa.) squad, YSU led from wire to wire in a 81-41 slaughter. The win is the sixth in a row for YSU (7-3), which has won each of those except one -- the 59-55 win at Northern Kentucky -- by double-digits. The average margin of Penguin victory has been just over 29 points over that span.
"I think our players did a really good job of executing the gameplan, even though it was exam week," YSU coach John Barnes said. "A lot of pressure on them in the classroom, so I'm really proud of that."
Lilly Ritz began the demolition with a layup just eight seconds into the contest, and from there, the points hardly quit flowing. Paige Shy hit a 3-pointer and a breakaway layup just moments later as YSU seized a quick 7-0 lead and prompted a Red Flash (0-10) timeout. By quarter's end, YSU led 25-9.
Dena Jarrells continued her step forward during the frame, posting three points, three assists and a rebound in just six minutes of action. She finished the night with 13 points on 5-of-9 shooting and six assists.
Ritz had 13 points and four rebounds, while Malia Magestro scored a game-high 17 points. In all, 12 Penguins hit the scorebook. Perhaps most impressive, the Penguins racked up 21 assists to just nine turnovers. Mady Aulbach added four of those to go with five points.
As a team, YSU shot 26-of-53 (49.1 percent) and went 18-for-20 at the free throw line.
"I think it's a very unselfish team," Barnes said. "They want to help the other player get a basket, and they're happy when they can assist on a basket. To have a lot of players impact the game and get points and get a lot of minutes is what we need right now."
Of Magestro's day, Barnes added, "I thought she came out really aggressive, and it set the tone for us offensively. She was knocking down shots, and she played very good defensively, too. She's just going to keep getting better and better. ... Teams are paying a little more attention to her, and so keeping her head up and finding the open player also (is important)."
Defensively, the Penguins were equally impressive. YSU led 49-13 at half, the sixth-fewest point total YSU has given up in a half in program history. Youngstown State kept Detroit Mercy to eight points on Jan. 13, 2007.
By game's end, YSU forced 20 turnovers and scored 25 points off of them. Additionally, St. Francis shot just 16-of-48 overall and a paltry 3-of-14 from 3-point range.
"In practice, we've really been focusing on the other team's tendencies and everything that they do individually," Magestro explained. "So, even Coach (Barnes) said after this game that we really studied our scout this whole week, and that's what we've been doing to blow these teams out. We just know exactly what every player is doing, and we're able to stop that."
The nonconference slate concludes Wednesday with Mount Vernon Nazarene, and then Horizon League play resumes with Cleveland State on Dec. 29.
"We're just trying to get better each day, whether it's in practice, in games, whatever the case may be," Barnes said.
Of league play, he added, "This conference is very much a challenge. Probably three quarters of this league can win the regular season or the tournament, so night in, night out, you have to be ready to go."
jwhetzel@tribtoday.com