Stakes are high for YSU women
Set to take on Cleveland State and Purdue Fort-Wayne
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YOUNGSTOWN -- Postseason positioning, late-season momentum and a rivalry game, to boot.
The stakes will be high as ever when Youngstown State pays Cleveland State a 7 p.m. visit tonight at the Wolstein Center (ESPN+, 1390 AM WNIO). The game is a rematch of two teams that played to an emotional and physical 70-59 YSU win on New Year's Day, and also one between teams that sit at second and third in the Horizon League.
In that first meeting, the game lasted two-and-a half hours and featured 48 fouls and 55 free throws.
"Rivalry game, both teams fighting to try to get a top four spot or top spot, and both good teams," YSU coach John Barnes said. "I anticipate a really hard-fought game."
YSU (19-4, 13-3) enters at second in the league behind IUPUI (17-5, 14-3), and just snapped a brief two-game losing streak with a 60-56 win at Milwaukee, the program's first at UWM since 2016.
"That was a huge win, not only for just trying to stay on top of the league, but also, you know, we lost a couple games and maybe confidence wavered a little bit," Barnes said.
Cleveland State (15-4, 10-3) is lurking just behind YSU at third in the Horizon, and enters on a two-game win streak and has won six of its last seven. The Vikings' last loss before that hot streak was YSU's win at the Beeghly Center.
Barnes says not much has changed about CSU since that initial meeting -- the Vikings are still athletic, well-coached and tough on both ends.
Destiny Leo still paces the Vikings, scoring 17 points per game in league contests. That's the third-highest average behind YSU's Lilly Ritz (18.8 points per league game) and IUPUI's Macee Williams (18.0 points). Overall, Leo has scored 18.4 points per game when non-league games are included, and Nadia Dumas adds 10.8 points.
"Destiny Leo is an outstanding player -- one of the best players in the league -- who can score from anywhere at any time," Barnes said. "So that creates a big problem."
As a whole, CSU's offense scores 71.8 points per game, the highest average in the Horizon. The Viking defense, meanwhile, gives up just 59.1 points per game.
As such, expect another defensive battle this time around. YSU's defense gives up 56.3 points per game, the second-best mark in the league, while the Penguins score 66.3 points per game.
Dumas is part of a Viking frontcourt that Barnes said is "doing very well."
And, of course, there's the challenge of playing on the road. YSU's final six games will feature four road contests, including this one. Cleveland State, meanwhile, enters with a 10-1 mark when playing in friendly confines.
"We're going to have to play one of our best games to get a win there," Barnes acknowledged.
That road stretch continues Sunday when the Penguins visit Purdue Fort Wayne (8-15, 6-9), a team that's won three of its last four games.
The Mastodons may be without one of their leading scorers, Shayla Sellers, who suffered a concussion last week. She was scoring 10.6 points per game. They've also been without Riley Ott for the last few weeks reportedly due to a broken wrist.
Sylare Starks remains in the lineup, though, and scores 10.6 per game for PFW.
After the trip to Northeast Indiana, the Penguins will have a brief two-game homestand against Northern Kentucky and Wright State before heading out again to conclude the season with IUPUI and UIC. It's a stark contrast after playing seven of 10 January games at Beeghly.
"We did a good job for the most part taking advantage of playing at home for most of the season," Barnes said. "Now, four of our last six are on the road. We're going to have to steal a couple road wins to stop atop the league. That's a big challenge, but every team faces those types of challenges, and you just have to rise to the occasion."