YSU Sports

Post & perimeter

Penguins dominate inside and outside

YOUNGSTOWN -- If Purdue Fort Wayne wasn't familiar with Youngstown State's play in the post, they sure became well acquainted with senior Mary Dunn and freshman Nneka Obiazor over the weekend inside the Beeghly Center.

As if those two weren't enough, senior McKenah Peters made sure to make her presence known from the perimeter.

Despite a slow start, YSU defeated the Mastodons 68-52, on Saturday for their fifth straight win at home and eighth victory over their last nine games.

It's also the third weekend series that the Penguins have swept this season.

After scoring 102 points on Friday afternoon, YSU set a high bar going into Saturday, something that isn't easy to repeat.

"I think it's tough, I think we didn't do a good job of rebounding like we did (Friday)," coach John Barnes said. "They had 15 offensive rebounds, we have way more size than them, so that tells me our effort wasn't there like it should have been.

"We also had double the turnovers. We had 14 turnovers today, we only had eight yesterday, so those two stats right there make a huge difference in the score of the game."

Rylie Parker gave PFW its first lead of the weekend after making a jumper on the left side to begin the game, but Peters immediately responded with a 3-pointer off a feed from fellow senior Chelsea Olson. Trailing 15-12, freshman Malia Magestro netted a buzzer beating 3 to tie the contest through one quarter of play.

YSU (8-4, 8-4) led 27-24 at halftime, a far cry from their 16-point advantage Friday afternoon, and PFW cut the lead to one at 32-31 after an Aubrey Stupp 3. But the Penguins held the 'Dons (0-18, 0-16) scoreless through the final 6:44 of the third quarter.

Dunn nailed a layup over Sierra Bell to kick off a 13-0 run that was capped off by yet another buzzer beater by Magestro, who went coast-to-coast and tossed a right hand layup off the glass to give YSU a 45-31 lead.

With 6:04 to go in the fourth, Dunn passed out of a double-team to a wide-open Peters on the right side. She nailed her 150th career 3- pointer, which puts her in the top 10 all-time in career 3 for the Penguins.

YSU led by as much as 22 following a reverse layup by Obiazor that faked out a PFW player under the basket.

Obiazor and Dunn had 16 and 15 points, respectively, and play in the paint was going to be an important factor over a winless Purdue Fort Wayne team that lacks size in the post.

"We knew going in that where we were going to have to take advantage of their size." Barnes explained "I thought they both did a great job, and they were getting double-teamed the whole time too.

"That's key for us to be able to score, even when teams are throwing help in there, and then Mary and Nneka found the open player a few times for open threes, so it was a good game for those two."

Peters ended with a game-high 19 points after recording 15 the afternoon before, while hauling in seven rebounds. YSU shot at 51 percent on 26-for-51 shooting, while going 6-for-21 beyond the arc.

YSU might have left some points on the court, but at the end of the day, it's about the win column.

"They talked about it before I got in the locker room, that it wasn't their best performance," Barnes said. "But I would much rather not play up to par and win, then play the best game of the year and lose.

"So, I'm happy to get two wins, get these games behind us. There's two weekends to go before tournament time where we can keep improving, keep getting better and just looking forward to it."

Looking ahead, it won't get easier for a Penguins team that'll hit the road one last time in the regular season for a back-to-back with reigning Horizon League champion IUPUI (11-4, 9-3) and two-time Horizon League Player of the Year Macee Williams.