Just the Basics
The Youngstown State women's basketball team will head to the west coast for two games at the DoubleTree L.A. Westside Thanksgiving Classic hosted by Loyola Marymount. The Penguins will play LMU on Friday at 4 p.m. Eastern, and they'll play either Wyoming or UNI on Saturday depending on Friday's outcomes. Friday's game will be broadcast locally on 1390 WNIO, and live video and live stats will be available throughout the tournament on lmulions.com. YSU is coming off a 48-41 loss at home to American while LMU dropped to 0-4 with a 79-52 loss at Cal State Fullerton.
Top Storylines
- YSU has two Los Angeles-area natives on its roster – Macey Nortey (Long Beach) and Brandi Brown (Pomona).
- Brown is one point shy of 1,000 for her career. If she reaches it against LMU, she'll accomplish it in her 65th career game. That would be the third-fastest in YSU history. Only seven of the previous 16 Penguins to score 1,000 points reached the milestone as a junior.
- Nortey has started 88 games in her career and has a chance to break YSU's career record of 112.
- YSU will be playing in California for the first time since it played two contests at Pepperdine in December 1998.
- Dating back to last season, YSU has won five of its last 11 games and four of its last seven. Prior to 11 games ago, YSU had five wins in its last 79 games.
- YSU scored 91 points in its win at IPFW on Nov. 13. The Penguins have scored 98 points combined in their two games since. YSU is averaging 45 points in its three games other than the contest at IPFW.
Scouting Loyola Marymount
Loyola Marymount has three straters returning from last year's squad that finished 11-18. Junior Alex Cowling is also back from a redshirt season. She set LMU's single-season scoring record with 526 points as a sophomore in 2009-10, and Cowling is averaging 19.5 points and 8.0 rebounds this year. None of her teammates are averaging more than eight points or six rebounds. LMU is 0-4 this year following a 79-52 loss at Cal State Fullerton on Monday, and the Lions have lost 12 of their last 13 games dating back to Jan. 29 of last season.
Scouting Northern Iowa
Northern Iowa has six players returning from last year's squad that went 27-6 overall and 17-1 in Missouri Valley Conference play. UNI was picked to finish second in the MVC's preseason poll despite winning the conference last year. The Panthers are playing without the 2011 MVC Player of the Year Jacqui Kalin, who will miss the year after tearing her ACL during an open gym session. UNI is 2-1 with wins over Colorado State and Chicago State and a loss to Iowa. Katelin Oney leads five players averaging at least eight points with 15.7 points per game.
Scouting Wyoming
Wyoming got its first win of the season on Nov. 17 with a 69-61 victory over Division II Chadron State. Junior forward Chaundra Sewell is the lone returning starter from last year's Wyoming team that went 24-9 with two wins in the WNIT. She is averaging 15 points and 6.3 rebounds. No other returning player averaged more than 3.8 points last year. Ashley Sickles, another returner, is averaging 11.3 points. Nobody on Wyoming's roster is shorter than 5-foot-9, and Sewell is one of five players who are at least 6 feet tall.
Series with Tournament Teams
Youngstown State has not played any of the teams that will be competing at the DoubleTree Los Angeles Westside Thanksgiving Classic. The Penguins have played one team from each of the three other leagues that will represented at LMU. The Penguins are 1-3 versus Indiana State in the Missouri Valley Conference. As a side note, YSU competes with UNI in the Valley Football Conference in the Football Championship Subdivision. YSU is 1-2 all-time against UNLV of the Mountain West (Wyoming), and the Guins are 0-1 against Pepperdine of the West Coast Conference (LMU).
Last Game: L, 48-41 vs. American
American outscored Youngstown State 12-4 over the final three minutes to edge the Guins 48-41 on a slow offensive night for both teams.
YSU junior Brandi Brown had 14 points and nine rebounds and ended the night with 999 career points. Alexis Dobbs had 14 points and hit a big 3-pointer with 2:30 left for American, which was picked to win the Patriot League.
Although YSU shot just 26.8 percent, the Penguins held American to 35.6 percent shooting and forced 25 turnovers.
With YSU ahead 38-37, Kenya Middlebrooks had a bucket waved off on a charge with three minutes left. American's Lisa Strack hit two free throws, and Dobbs hit a 3-pointer to put the Eagles up 41-37. YSU cut the lead to two on two Middlebrooks free throws, but Arron Zimmerman hit another trey out of a timeout less than minute later to start a 5-0 run.
Quick Notes from American
- YSU shot under 32 percent for the third time in four games. The Penguins were also under 20 percent from 3-point range for the third time.
- The Penguins had season lows in free throws made (6) and attempted (12).
- YSU had at least 12 steals for the third straight contest.
- Neither team had a field goal from 9:14 to 3:40 of the second half, and a Kenya Middlebrooks free throw was the only point during that span.
- After Monica Touvelle's 3-pointer put YSU up with 10:44 remaining, the Penguins only other field goal of the game was a Brandi Brown bucket with 3:40 left.
- Over the final 10 minutes, YSU missed nine 3-pointers and three free throws, went 1-for-13 from the field and committed six turnovers.
- YSU had a different starting line-up for the first time this year. Macey Nortey, Liz Hornberger, Kenya Middlebrooks and Brandi Brown started for the fourth straight game, but Tieara Jones started in place of Heidi Schlegel.
- The Penguins held the edge in points in the paint for the third straight game. They outscored opponents in the paint just eight times all of last year.
California Homecoming
Two daughters of The Golden State will be celebrating Thanksgiving near their hometowns this week. Senior guard Macey Nortey is from Long Beach, Calif., and junior forward Brandi Brown hails from Pomona, Calif. Nortey's mother has seen her play in Youngstown, and Brown's mother and a few siblings watched her play in a tournament at UTEP two years ago.
Defense is Improved
Youngstown State's defense has shown improvement in the early part of the 2011-12 season. The Penguins are allowing 63.5 points per game, and opponents are shooting .426 against them. Last year, teams averaged 69 points and shot .446. The biggest improvement has been defense on the perimeter. Opponents are shooting .293 from 3-point range this year, down from .342 in 2010-11. YSU is also averaging 11.5 steals this season, up from 9.7 last year.
Brown is One from 1,000
Junior forward and California native Brandi Brown is just one point 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. She has 60 points 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 will be playing her 65th and 66th games at LMU.
About 1,000-Point Scorers
Of the current 16 players in Youngstown State history who scored at least 1,000 points in their careers, 15 attended high school within 90 minutes of campus. Only Jen Perugini, who resided in Ontario, is outside of the 90-minute radius. Dorothy Bowers (1st), Wanda Grant (2nd), Danielle Carson (3rd), Margaret Somple (5th), Liz Hauger (8th), Dianne Rappach (12th), Vicki Lawrence (15th) all hailed from either Mahoning or Trumbull County near Youngstown.
Getting Blocked
Through the first four games, YSU's opponents have blocked 31 shots for an average of 7.8 per game. A bulk of those have come in two games. West Virginia blocked 12 attempts in the season opener on Nov. 11, and Bucknell had 10 blocks on Nov. 16. IPFW had two blocks on Nov. 13, and American blocked seven shots on Nov. 21. Brandi Brown has been blocked 10 times by herself. If YSU had made even 15 of the 31 attempts that were blocked, its shooting percentage would be 6.5 percent higher. YSU's opponents blocked three shots per game last year.
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. On average, they made 6.8 per game and attempted 24.8. This year, YSU is averaging 5.8 3-pointers made and 25.5 attempts. Its shooting percentage is .225 this year, down from .276 last season.
Top Season Highlights Thus Far
- YSU beat IPFW 91-81 on Nov. 13 for its first non-conference road win since Dec. 21, 2007.
- The 91 points at IPFW were YSU's most since scoring 92 at Valpo in Jan. 31, 2008.
- YSU's 51.8 percent shooting at IPFW was its highest since shooting 54.7 percent at Green Bay on Feb. 16, 2006.
- By beating Bucknell and IPFW, YSU won back-to-back road games for the first time since February 2008. It also won back-to-back non-conference road games for the first time since 2004.
- The win over Bucknell gave YSU a winning percentage over .500 for the first time since it was 10-9 on Feb. 1, 2008.
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.
Coaches in Second Seasons
Coach Bob Boldon is the fifth head coach in YSU history, and he is trying to become the third to increase his win total in his second year. Joyce Ramsey improved from 9-4 to 13-4 between 1975-76 and 1976-77. Ed DiGregorio went from 7-17 in 1983-84 to 14-13 the following year. Cindy Martin went 3-27 in 2008-09 and 0-30 in 2009-10. Jeff Cohen coached just the 1982-83 season.
Tough Stretch to Start Season
When YSU plays either Wyoming or Northern Iowa on Saturday, it will be the fourth time in six that the Penguins will be playing a team coming off a 20-win season. YSU will also be playing away from home for the fifth time in six games.
For the year, YSU plays 13 games against teams coming off of 20-win seasons. The Guins have just 12 home games scheduled.
Up Next
YSU will return home to host Western Michigan on Nov. 30 at 7:05 p.m.
