Correspondent photo / Robert Hayes. YSU's Danielle Cameron lines up one of her five made 3-pointers during the second quarter on Saturday against IU Indy at Zidian Family Arena.

YOUNGSTOWN — There weren’t a lot of things that went well for the Youngstown State women’s basketball team on Saturday when it played IU Indy.

The offense never got going, there were missed free throws and the defense slowly started giving up points. That all combined for a 61-52 loss to the Jaguars at the Beeghly Center.

“I thought we prepared our group well enough for how hard they play,” YSU head coach Melissa Jackson said. “I told them multiple times now, ‘they’ve positioned themselves to get everybody’s best effort.’ And we absolutely got that tonight from IU Indy.”

YSU’s defense had a good start. The Penguins forced three shot clock violations in the first several minutes of play. The Penguins (13-6, 6-3 Horizon League) also held the Jaguars to 5-of-13 shooting from the field in the first quarter.

Despite the defensive effort, the offense couldn’t get rhythm, committing five turnovers. Nevaeh Foster sank a three just before the buzzer to give IUI (7-11, 3-6 HL) an 11-9 lead at the end of the opening frame.

“I don’t like our response,” Jackson said. “We got punched in the mouth early with some physicality, and we have to be better. Our young group has to understand how to punch back. Not physically, but just with our play, show some toughness there.

“Our group has done that pretty much all year, so this was very much uncharacteristic of them.”

YSU’s overall offensive struggles continued in the second, but Danielle Cameron’s 3-point shooting kept the Penguins in the game.

Cameron made all five of the Penguins’ buckets in the second, with all of them coming from behind the arc. The redshirt freshman scored all 16 of YSU’s points in the quarter.

However, two free throws from Olivia Smith with three seconds to play before the break gave the Jaguars a 26-25 lead at halftime.

“(Jackson) was getting on us to take our open shots,” Cameron said. “We practice a lot of shots in practice and outside of practice. She’s confident in us, and we were passing them up at the beginning. (The Jaguars) have really good help-side, that’s something they really excel at, so we needed to take those shots to exploit it.”

Turnovers continued to plague the Penguins in the third as they gave the ball up seven times.

Kamara Mills hit a three at the buzzer, the second time IUI sank one from deep to end a quarter, to extend the Jaguars’ lead to 45-40 heading into the fourth.

Then the fouls started to add up for the YSU frontcourt. Sophia Gregory fouled out around the 5:30 mark, and Sarah Baker dealt with foul trouble throughout the game and picked up her fourth shortly after Gregory left the court.

YSU was also held to 4-for-12 shooting during the fourth, leading to a 18-for-44 (40.9%) overall performance offensively.

IUI came in averaging 21.8 forced turnovers per game, which ranked first in the Horizon League. The Penguins committed 19 turnovers, which led to 18 points for the Jaguars.

Jackson and Cameron said the Jaguars are a unique defense due to their similar size across the board and their length. That allowed them to switch everything on Saturday and get their hands into passing lanes.

“They make you play faster by getting up in your grill and being physical,” Cameron said. “We knew that, and they’ve done that to all their (opponents). They lead our conference in steals. Our practice guys did a good job of preparing us, I just think we weren’t locked in on it at the beginning.”

Cameron led the Penguins with 16 points with seven rebounds and three assists. Casey Santoro tallied 14 points with four rebounds and three assists, and Baker finished with 10 points, six rebounds and two blocks.

The Jaguars had four players in double figures. Smith scored a team-high 16 points, Foster and Kamara Mills each scored 11 and Ariana Williams added 10.

The Penguins will be back in action on Wednesday when they travel to Robert Morris. They return to Beeghly Center on Jan. 25 to take on Cleveland State.

“You never want to learn from a loss. You’d love to learn from a win, but unfortunately we didn’t get that tonight,” Jackson said. “Hopefully this loss will sting, and we’ll be better for it moving forward.”