Youngstown -- Senior Kelsey Gurganus scored a season-high 15 points to pace a strong offensive effort for the Youngstown State women's basketball team in a 70-62 loss to Detroit on Thursday evening.
    Jaquetta Westley added 16 points for the Penguins, who posted their second-best scoring and shooting performances of the season.
    Westley and Gurganus combined to hit six of YSU's season-high eight 3-pointers. Camisha Alexander had the other two and finished with nine points.
    Sandi Brown scored a game-high 27 points on 10-for-16 shooting, and Jaleesa Trussell added 16 off the bench. Detroit was 16-for-20 from the free-throw line and outscored YSU 36-18 in the paint and 26-13 off turnovers.
    The continually improving Titans move  to 9-16 overall and 5-9 in Horizon League play while the Penguins fall to 2-22 and 0-13.
    With the score tied at 29 at halftime, Detroit began the second half by outscoring the Penguins 12-5 to take a 41-34 lead at the 14:54 mark.
    After Nortey and Alexander hit buckets to make the score 43-42 with 12:51 remaining, the Titans scored 14 straight points over the next four minutes and led 57-42 with 8:17 to go.
    Detroit led by as many 16, and the eight-point deficit at the end of the contest was the closest YSU got in the final 10 minutes.
    In the first half, the Penguins forced seven Detroit  turnovers in the first eight minutes but could only convert two points off those miscues and found themselves trailing by nine, 16-7, midway through the first half.
    Over the next four minutes, the Guins scored 11 straight points to take an 18-16 lead with 6:39 to go.
    Alexander began the surge with a layup and was followed by two jumpers by Ashley Pendleton.
    Gurganus' layup brought the Penguins within one and Alexander drilled a 3-pointer to give the Penguins the two-point edge.
    After a jumper by Brown knotted the game at 18, Monique Godfrey hit a jumper and Westley drained a 3-pointer to cap a 16-2 run and give the Guins a 23-18 lead with 3:04 remaining.
    During that run, Detroit missed seven straight field-goal attempts before Brown's jumper.
    Chanica Hall answered with a 3-pointer to cut the lead back to two, 23-21, but  Nortey responded with a jumper to extend the Guins advantage back to four, 25-21, at the 2:26 mark.
    Detroit, however, would outscore YSU, 8-4, over the last two minutes to tie the game at 29-29 at the intermission.
    The Penguins host Wright State on Saturday at 2:05 p.m. They will participate in the WBCA Pink Zone initiative by wearing pink warm-ups to increase awareness for breast cancer.