Washington, D.C. -- The Youngstown State women's basketball team shot 24.6 percent to spoil a solid defensive effort in a 57-41 loss to American at Bender Arena on Saturday.

The Penguins held the Eagles to 35.7 percent and held their top two scorers to a combined nine points. Alexis Dobbs stepped up to score 14 points and hit four of American's nine 3-pointers.

Kenya Middlebrooks scored a season-high 16 points, but not other YSU player had more than six. Brandi Brown, the Horizon League's leading scorer, was held scoreless and went 0-for-9 from the field. The sophomore forward grabbed a game-high 13 rebounds, and the Penguins won the rebounding battle 41-37.

Neither team started either half well on the offensive end. American scored the first six points of the second period and held YSU scoreless until Heigi Schlegel hit a jumper with 13:32 remaining. American then scored the next eight points to up its advantage to 41-24 and cap a 14-2 run to start the second half.

Dobbs hit a triple to put American up 49-27 with 9:47 left, but the Eagles went scoreless until she hit another 3-pointer with 4:05 remaining. YSU was able to chip away, but the Guins were only able to cut the deficit to 10 before Dobbs' trey. Dobb's bucket keyed a 7-0 run for the Eagles that put them up 53-36 with 2:51 to play.

American's Tori Halvorsen hit the only bucket in the first five minutes of the first half, a triple at the 16:13 mark. AU then went without a field goal until Dobbs' 3-pointer with 11:18 remaining.

Schlegel had YSU's first bucket with 14:33 remaining, and the Guins scored six straight points to go up 8-4 with 11:45 left on Maryum Jenkins' steal and lay-up.

YSU led 14-9 after Tieara Jones' put-back, but American scored the next seven points to go up 16-14 at the 6:44 mark. A Middlebrooks trey put YSU back up 17-16 with 6:33 left, but the Eagles scored the next eight points and led 25-17 at the 4:11 mark.

Macey Nortey hit two free throws and Boki Dimitrov buried a trey to cut the margin to 25-22 with 1:57 left. The Eagles got two free throws with 4.2 seconds left for the halftime margin.

Youngstown State shot 30.8 percent in the opening half, and American shot 29.6 percent. The Eagles had two more triples and scored three more points from the free-throw line.

Dobbs had a half-high eight points, which all came in a four-minute span, for American. Middlebrooks had seven to lead YSU. Brown was 0-for-4 from the field in the first half but led all players with five rebounds.

Youngstown State will break from game action for finals week. The Penguins will play at Western Michigan on Dec. 12 at 2 p.m.