Correspondent photo / Robert Hayes. YSU sophomore Erica King scores while being fouled, converting a three-point play while scoring a career-high 23 points against Oakland on Monday at Zidian Family Arena.

YOUNGSTOWN — Oakland came into Zidian Family Arena with intensity on Monday night. It took Youngstown State a quarter to match that intensity to get things rolling.

After a tight opening period, the Penguins built a double-digit lead in the second quarter and pulled away late in the second half for an 81-58 victory over the Golden Grizzlies to pick up their fourth straight win.

“I thought we just played harder honestly,” head coach Melissa Jackson said of YSU’s second-quarter surge. “I want to give Oakland some credit. I thought they came in here, they played really hard. They did some things schematically very different than what we’ve seen. So give their coaching staff some credit there, but very proud of our team for their response.

“We talked a lot about response in timeouts, at halftime and I thought our group really did that. You saw our ability to close games — the moment’s not too big for any of them. I thought they had big shots, and I thought we got big stops.”

Oakland (4-11, 1-4 Horizon) matched YSU (11-4, 4-1 Horizon) shot-for-shot in the first quarter. The Golden Grizzlies were able to create and take advantage of some mismatches offensively, as the two teams closed the opening period tied at 16.

Redshirt freshmen Sarah Baker and Danielle Cameron paced the Penguins during the period, combining for 14 of the team’s 16 points. Baker ended up finishing with 12 points and Cameron had nine points.

Then in the second, sophomore guard Erica King came alive.

After a scoreless first, King had 13 of her career-high 23 points in that second quarter to help the Penguins outscore Oakland 26-14 during the period and take a 42-30 lead at halftime after Makenzie Luehring hit a runner at the buzzer for the Grizzlies. She led Oakland with 20 points.

In addition to her scoring, King also had eight rebounds, five assists and no turnovers.

“Right now, I’m playing with a lot of confidence. But my confidence comes from my team and my coaches who have confidence in me, and I believe I can do anything with their confidence,” King said. “We needed to get downhill more instead of shooting the far threes that we love to shoot. We sometimes have a problem getting down there, but I like to help create that and I’m good at seeing the floor and making good passes and decisions off that.”

In the second half, Oakland still had a couple runs left. Twice the Golden Grizzlies had stretches where they’d cut YSU’s lead down to nine. But each time, the Penguins would put together a response to comfortably push their lead back to double digits.

“Runs are going to happen in the game,” said sophomore forward Sophia Gregory, who was one of YSU’s four double-figure scorers with 15 points. “That’s what basketball is. But we never let our guard down. We believed in ourselves, we knew we could do it and we stuck together.”

It was a demonstration of YSU’s growth this season, especially on the offensive end of the floor.

Last year, with a team full of freshmen, games would sometimes get away from the Penguins when opposing teams went on runs. With a more experienced team, that hasn’t been the case much this season.

YSU answered Oakland’s runs in a variety of ways — Cameron hit a three to match a three from Luehring, Gregory had a three-point play, King knocked down a three on a fast break and Paulina Hernandez had a layup in transition. Hernandez finished with 16 points as YSU’s fourth double-figure scorer.

“I think the difference with this group is there’s just so much balance, and there’s so much confidence amongst our group,” Jackson said. “When one player is hot, I think other players feed off that and they feel comfortable. You look at our statsheet, it’s so balanced, and it really just shows how complete our team is. The moment’s not too big for them.”

Throughout the night, Oakland was intent on driving the lane and attacking the basket, especially with their difficulties shooting from three, finishing 1-for-18. But the Penguins adjusted and pulled away in the fourth quarter.

“I kept reiterating that in every timeout — have a hand up because they’re really looking to attack us off the bounce,” Jackson said. “I think we adjusted to that. … We definitely played them as three-level scorers, but I think their gameplan was really to drive it. As the game went on, I thought we got better at that.”

YSU now continues its busy week on Thursday, as it plays host to Northern Kentucky at 7:17 p.m.