The Youngstown State women's basketball team will conclude its
season-opening three-game road swing at Bucknell on Wednesday in
Lewisburg, Pa. Tipoff against the Bison is set for 7 p.m., and the
game will be carried live on 570 WKBN and 570wkbn.com. Live video
and live stats will be available on bucknellbison.com. YSU is
coming off a 91-81 win at IPFW on Sunday, and the Penguins will be
going for back-to-back road wins since February 2008. Bucknell lost
63-43 at Rider on Sunday to drop to 1-1.
Top Storylines
- YSU beat IPFW 91-81 on Sunday for its first non-conference road
win since Dec. 21, 2007 at Akron. Current YSU head coach Bob Boldon
was an assistant with the Zips that game.
- YSU scored just 37 points in the season opener at West
Virginia. The Penguins scored their 37th point with 2:52 remaining
in the first half on Sunday at IPFW. YSU's 91 points against IPFW
was its most since scoring 92 at Valpo on Jan. 31, 2008.
- Junior forward Brandi Brown is the Horizon League Preseason
Player of the Year. She was a second-team all-league pick last year
as the conference's top scorer at 19.9 points per game. Brown is
averaging 17 points through two games this year.
- Brown has scored 973 points in her two-plus years at YSU and is
27 points from becoming the 17th player in school history to reach
1,000 points. Only seven of the previous 16 reached the milestone
as a junior.
- Despite its 6-24 record last year, YSU won its last three home
games and was within one possession in the final 15 seconds of its
final three road games.
- YSU set school records with 205 3-pointers made and 744
3-pointers attempted last year.
Scouting Bucknell
Bucknell is 1-1 with a home win over St. Peter's and a road loss
to Rider. The Bison are averaging just 44.5 points per game, but
opponents are scoring just 49 points on average against them.
Bucknell is 0-for-13 from 3-point range through two games. With
three starters returning from last year's 11-17 team, Bucknell was
picked to finish fourth in the Patriot League preseason poll.
Sophomore guard Shelby Romine was a preseason first-team all-league
pick.
Series with Bucknell
Youngstown State has won four straight games against Bucknell
and leads the all-time series 4-1. Bucknell won the first meeting
in 1989, but YSU beat the Bison in each of the next three seasons.
The teams didn't play again until YSU beat Bucknell 71-57 last year
in Beeghly Center to snap a 34-game losing streak. YSU is 1-1
all-time at Bucknell.
Last Game: W, 91-81 at IPFW
YSU had its highest offensive output since the 2007-08 season
and held off a late charge in a 91-81 at IPFW on Sunday
afternoon.
Brandi Brown scored 18 of her 22 points in the second half, and
Kenya Middlebrooks had 17 of her 21 in the first half for YSU.
Heidi Schlegel added 17 points, and the Guins shot 51.8 percent
from the field.
YSU last scored in the nineties when it had 92 points at
Valparaiso on Jan. 31, 2008.
The Penguins led by as many as 24 points with 10-and-a-half
minutes remaining, but IPFW made a late run to make the final score
close. Although YSU led by double digits the entire second half,
IPFW trimmed the lead to 82-72 with 2:55 left to play.
The Mastodons didn't hit another field goal until the 1:09 mark,
and YSU had upped its lead back to 13 by then.
Five different Penguins shot better than 50 percent, and nine
different Guins had at least one assist.
Last Time vs. Bucknell
Brandi Brown scored 23 points and had 11 rebounds as YSU beat
Bucknell 71-57 and snap a 34-game losing streak on Nov. 24, 2010.
YSU's win drought was 627 days.
Heidi Schlegel scored 11 points, and Kenya Middlebrooks added 10
points in the second half as YSU outscored Bucknell 44-27 in the
final 20 minutes. Macey Nortey added nine points, and she had three
steals in the final three minutes as YSU started to pull away.
The win was also gave first-year head coach Bob Boldon his first
Division I victory.
Bucknell trailed just 54-53, but YSU scored the next 10 points
to go up 64-53 with 2:19 left. The Penguins hit six free throws
during that stretch and went 21-for-24 from the charity stripe for
the game.
Quick Notes from IPFW
- YSU won its first non-conference road game since Dec. 21, 2007,
at Akron. Coach Bob Boldon was an assistant at Akron in that
game.
- YSU scored at least 90 points for the first time since Jan. 31,
2008, at Valparaiso.
- The Penguins won when allowing at least 80 points for the first
time since Dec. 16, 2001, at Robert Morris.
- YSU's 51.8 percent shooting was its best since shooting 54.7
percent at Green Bay on Feb. 16, 2006.
- YSU had three players score at least 17 points for the first
time since a double-OT game against Milwaukee on Feb. 9, 2008.
- YSU made 24 free throws against IPFW. That was the most since
making 28 at UIC on March 8, 2008.
- Brandi Brown recorded her 19th career 20-point game with 22 at
IPFW.
- Kenya Middlebrooks scored 21 points for her third career
20-point game. She also had a career-best five steals.
- Melissa Thompson had five offensive rebounds in the first half.
Her previous career high for total rebounds in a game was
three.
- Six of YSU's 10 players made at least 50 percent of their field
goal attempts.
- Seven Penguins had at least as many assists as turnovers.
Who's Back from 2010-11
Youngstown State returns four starters and seven letterwinners
from last year's team that finished 6-24 overall and 4-14 in
Horizon League play. YSU returns 83.3 percent of its scoring from
last season, which is the second-highest in the Horizon League.
Returning starters include senior guards Tieara Jones, Kenya
Middlebrooks and Macey Nortey, and junior forward Brandi Brown.
Sophomore guards Liz Hornberger, Melissa Thompson and Monica
Touvelle are the other returning letterwinners.
Who's New for 2011-12
There are three newcomers on the squad, and all are guards.
Devan Matkin is a junior transfer from Tallahassee Community
College, and Kelsea Fickiesen and Ashley Lawson are freshmen.
Matkin averaged 7.4 points and made a team-best 30 3-pointers last
year. She hit three triples in five different games. Fickiesen
scored 2,096 points and was a four-time all-state honoree at St.
Marys High in West Virginia. Lawson was a Special Mention All-Ohio
pick as a senior as she averaged 14.7 points.
Shooting/Making 3s at Record Pace
YSU set a school record with 744 3-point attempts last season.
That was 180 more attempts than the previous record set in 1997-98.
The Penguins also made a school-best 205 treys, surpassing the 199
made in 1999-2000. YSU is averaging seven three points and 25.5
attempts per game this year.
The Penguins attempted at least 30 3-pointers in seven different
games last year. They had done that just four times in the
program's first 35 seasons. YSU also made at least 10 treys on six
occasions last year. The 1999-2000 season was the only other time
in school history when YSU made double-digit treys in at least five
different games.
Last Year's Areas of Improvement
- YSU improved its scoring margin from 2009-10 from minus-25.8 to
minus-10.6. That 15.2-point improvement was second-best in the
country.
- The Penguins trimmed their turnovers by 3.3 per game from
2009-10 and forced 2.3 more per game. YSU's plus 2.3 turnover
margin ranked second in the Horizon League.
- The Penguins finished with 92 more steals than their opponents
last year, which was a big improvement from 2009-10 when YSU had 83
fewer thefts than its opponents.
- YSU continued to get better as last season progressed,
demonstrated by shooting better than its season field-goal
percentage in 15 of its final 18 games.
Boldon's Win Increase Most for YSU
Bob Boldon led YSU to a six-win increase last year in his first
season as the Penguins' head coach. Jeff Cohen is the only other
first-year head coach to increase the win total from the previous
year. He led YSU to 11 wins in 1982-83, a one-win increase from
1981-82.
Tough Schedule Lies Ahead
YSU plays 13 games against teams coming off of 20-win seasons,
and the Guins have just 12 home games scheduled for 2011-12. Five
of the first six are on the road. On a bright note, that road swing
ends with a homecoming for Los Angeles-area natives Macey Nortey
and Brandi Brown. YSU will play two games at the Loyola Marymount
tournament over Thanksgiving.
Penguins Picked 10th in Horizon League Preseason
Poll
Youngstown State is slated to finish 10th in the Horizon League
based on a preseason poll of the league's coaches, sports
information directors and a media member from each market.
Fresh off its Sweet 16 run, Green Bay is the preseason favorite
and received 29 of 30 first-place votes. Cleveland State was
second, and Wright State, Butler, UIC and Milwaukee finished third
through sixth. Detroit was picked to finish seventh, and Loyola,
Valparaiso and YSU rounded out the bottom three. YSU beat Valpo in
both meetings last year and was ahead of the Crusaders in the final
standings.
Guins in the Academic Top 25
For the first time in program history, the YSU women's
basketball team was recognized on the Women's Basketball Coaches
Association Academic Top 25 Team Honor Roll in July.
YSU had a combined grade-point average of 3.395 during the
2010-11 academic year, which ranked them 17th on the top 25 poll.
Horizon League teams Milwaukee and Green Bay were also in the top
25, giving the league a tie for the most among any conference in
the nation.
Brown's 1,000-Point Countdown
Junior forward Brandi Brown is just 27 points shy of becoming
the 17th player in Youngstown State women's basketball history to
score 1,000 points. Brown scored 342 points as a freshman in
2009-10, and she broke out to score 597 points last year as a
sophomore. That was the fifth-highest single-season total in school
history. Brown has 34 points in two games this year.
Brown can become the third-fastest player in school history to
reach 1,000 points. Wanda Grant scored her 1,000th point in her
50th career game, which was the 12th game of her junior year in
1979-80. Dorothy Bowers reached 1,000 in her 58th career game,
which was the third game of her junior year.
Brown Named Horizon League Preseason Player of the
Year
Junior forward Brandi Brown has been voted the Horizon League
Preseason Player of the Year.
Brown is coming off a breakout campaign in which she led the
conference in scoring and was named second-team All-Horizon League.
Interestingly, Brown is the first player in the Horizon League's
25-year history to win the scoring title and not be voted onto the
first team.
Brown was the only underclassman on the first or second team.
She averaged 19.9 points, ranked tied-for-fourth in the conference
with 9.2 rebounds per game, and her 13 double-doubles tied for the
league lead.
Interested in a Masquerade Party?
Youngstown State has two players wearing protective masks
– Kelsea Fickiesen and Heidi Schlegel. Oddly enough, the two
are roommates in Lyden Hall. Fickiesen's nose was broken at
practice on Halloween, and she missed just over a week of practice.
Schlegel's nose was broken during fall practice last year, but she
continues to wear the mask out of habit.
Up Next
Youngstown State will play its 2011-12 home opener against
American on Nov. 21. Tipoff against the Eagles at Beeghly Center is
set for 7 p.m.
