Correspondent photo / Robert Hayes. YSU's Erica King drives and scores during the second half on Thursday against Green Bay. King finished with 12 points in the loss.

YOUNGSTOWN — Scoring droughts on offense have been a recurring theme throughout this season for Youngstown State, particularly in losses.

It was the case once again on Thursday, as the Penguins were scoreless for three long stretches of a 58-50 defeat to Green Bay.

“It was tough — I feel like as a team, we just gotta keep going hard and build our confidence and just keep attacking, knowing that at some point, our shots are going to fall,” senior Haley Thierry said. “Just knowing that if we play as a team — and we know what we’re capable of — we just keep fighting until that buzzer goes off, that’s all we can do.”

YSU had scoreless stretches of five minutes in the first quarter, four minutes in the second quarter and five minutes again to start the fourth quarter.

During the first one, the Phoenix were able to take advantage with an 8-0 run that pushed their lead to double digits.

“I think a little bit of their physicality bothered us with their size at times,” head coach Melissa Jackson said. “They’re very experienced. They take away your actions. They take away your first action, then they take away your second action. Now once they do that, (we have to figure out) how can we score off that. You’re going to have to do that against some of the better teams in this league, and it’s not going to come as easy as it does in practice or sometimes against other teams.”

Then, after the second scoring drought, YSU finally started to find its offense to end the second quarter.

After the Phoenix had built their largest lead of the game (14) with just under four minutes left, the Penguins closed out the period with a 8-2 run to cut Green Bay’s lead to single digits at the break. Sophia Gregory scored six of her team-high 13 points during that stretch.

Erica King was the only other double-figure scorer for the Penguins, as she finished with 12 points. Natalie McNeal paced Green Bay with a game-high 17 points.

The Phoenix came in averaging 66.7 points per game, and YSU held them to 58, while forcing 19 turnovers and holding Green Bay to 28.6% from beyond the arc.

The defense was there all game for the Penguins, but they just couldn’t consistently find enough on the offensive end of the floor.

“We did enough defensively to beat a really good team — a team that has played a lot of basketball together and that has a ton of really good players,” Jackson said. “So I just want to give all the credit to our team for how much they fought. They never felt like they were out of this game till the end. We will continue to grow through some of these offensive struggles, but when this team puts it together on both ends of the floor, we’re really going to see something special, I think.”

Green Bay starts five seniors, while seven of the Phoenix’s top eight scorers are also seniors.

That experience paid dividends as YSU tried to chip away at Green Bay’s lead throughout the night. Each time the Penguins would find some momentum, either on defense or with a made bucket on the offensive end, the Phoenix had an answer.

“We talk about winning plays,” Jackson said. “We had some great defensive possessions, and then obviously they get a big offensive rebound — very timely winning plays there. This group, we’re continuing to learn through that and what it takes to beat some of the best teams in this league. I think we’re right on the cusp. I thought we played really well at Purdue Fort Wayne, and here’s another example of how well we can play at times. But we gotta put it together for 40 minutes and not have those droughts.”

YSU (7-9, 2-4) will now head back out on the road on Sunday, as the Penguins visit Wright State at 2 p.m.

The Raiders (3-14, 1-6) sit at the bottom of the Horizon League standings, but won their first conference game of the season on Wednesday against Detroit Mercy.

“That’s a huge game,” Jackson said. “You look at the standings, going back on the road, trying to steal one on the road. Obviously, I think we play really well here at home, but this group, this is a big-time game for us on Sunday. We gotta be smart about our rest and recovery. I thought we laid it all out there tonight, but I know our group is going to be ready to go on Sunday.”