Youngstown State freshman Anjalia Lyons posted her second-straight career-best outing with 20 points on 6-of-10 shooting from the floor and 8-of-13 from the charity stripe but the Penguins women's basketball team fell to Akron, 66-58, Saturday afternoon at the Beeghly Center.

Youngstown State falls to 1-7 and Akron, which won its fourth straight game, improves to 5-5.

Lyons converted the Penguins' last field goal of the game to give YSU a 51-50 lead - their last of the game - with 6:44 to go but Akron's Sarah Tokodi drilled a 3-pointer to give the Zips a two-point edge, 53-51, a lead they would not relinquish, at the 6:26 mark.

The Zips jumped out to an early 11-2 lead at the 14:25 mark of the first half by scoring 11 straight points after making their first five field goal attempts.

A three-pointer by Monique Godfrey, a jumper by Lyons and a free throw by Velissa Vaughn cut the Zips lead to three points, 11-8, at the 11:46 mark.

Akron, though, steadily extended its lead to as many as 10 points, 28-18, with 3:58 remaining before the intermission.

Two free throws from Nikita LaFleur, a 3-pointer by Vaughn, a charity toss by Ta-Myra Davis and a jumper by LaFleur gave a YSU a 8-0 run to close out the half and cut YSU's deficit to 28-26 at the half.

Junior Heather Karner gave the Penguins a 29-28 lead with a 3-pointer at the 19:25 mark of the second half.

The Penguins and Zips then battled through six lead changes and five ties before Tokodi's trey at the 6:26 mark gave Akron the lead for good.

Akron's Nikki McCoy scored a team-high 20 points, including 16 in the second half.

YSU hosts Robert Morris, Monday, Dec. 18, at 7:05 p.m.