The Youngstown State women's basketball team returns home to
play Western Michigan on Wednesday at 7:05 p.m. The game will be
broadcast live on 570 WKBN and the Horizon League Network, and live
stats will be available on YSUsports.com. It will be the first of
back-to-back home games for YSU and just the second of three
non-conference games at Beeghly Center. The Penguins split two
games at the DoubleTree L.A. Westside Thanksgiving Classic
Championship over the weekend, beating LMU 64-50 and losing 90-73
to UNI. Western Michigan is coming off a 72-66 overtime loss to
Cleveland State on Friday.
Top Storylines
- Brandi
Brown is the 17th player in YSU women's basketball history to
record 1,000 career points. She scored her milestone point against
LMU on Friday in front of about 20 family members and friends.
- Brown averaged 22 points and 8.5 rebounds to earn
all-tournament team honors at LMU. She was also 18-for-20 from the
free-throw line.
- Freshman Heidi Schlegel was
also an all-tournament team pick. She averaged 17 points and eight
rebounds while shooting 60 percent from the field.
- Dating back to last season, YSU has won six of its last 13
games and five of its last eight. Prior to 13 games ago, YSU had
six wins in its previous 84 contests.
- The Penguins averaged 68.5 points and shot 41.8 percent in two
games at LMU. They had averaged 49 points and shot 29.2 percent in
their two games leading up to the tournament.
- YSU led Western Michigan by 24 in the second half and by five
with 1:12 remaining in an overtime loss last year.
Scouting Western Michigan
Western Michigan has lost six straight games dating back to last
season and is 0-4 this year. The Broncos lost at Kansas and
Michigan State to start the year, then lost home contests to
Eastern Kentucky and Cleveland State. WMU's loss to CSU was 72-66
in overtime on Friday. Miame Giden leads the Broncos with 12.5
points and 8.5 rebounds per game, and three other players average
at least 7.5 points. WMU returns two starters from last year's
squad that finished 9-21. The Broncos were picked to finish sixth
of six in the MAC West.
Series with Western Michigan
Western Michigan has won five of the seven all-time meetings
with Youngstown State in a series dating back to 1987. The teams
played six times from 1987 to 1991, but they did not play each
other again until last year. YSU lost 69-64 in overtime in
Kalamazoo, Mich., last year. Both of the Penguins' wins in the
series have come at Beeghly Center.
Last Year vs. Western Michigan
Western Michigan rallied from a 21-point halftime deficit and
made 31-of-32 from the free-throw line to defeat YSU 69-64 in
overtime on Dec. 12, 2010.
The Broncos made just three field goals in the final 12:14 of
game action, but they went 17-for-18 from the stripe during that
span.
YSU led by as many as 24 in the second half, and it had a 58-53
lead with 1:15 left when things unravelled. After rebounding a WMU
miss, YSU's Brandi Brown was called for a flagrant foul on an elbow
to the face in traffic. The Broncos made both free throws and hit a
game-tying triple for a five-point swing.
YSU led 62-58 in overtime but was outscored 11-2 the rest of the
way. Kenya
Middlebrooks missed the front end of a one-and-one, and Heidi
Schlegel's tying attempt from 3-point range missed with less than
five seconds left.
Last Game: L, 90-73 vs. UNI
UNI hit 11 3-pointers, had five players score in double figures
and outscored YSU 25-1 in second-chance points to win the
DoubleTree L.A. Westside Thanksgiving Classic Championship on
Saturday at LMU's Gersten Pavilion.
YSU's Brandi Brown had a game-high 25 points, and Heidi Schlegel
added 17 points and six rebounds. Both Penguins forwards earned
all-tournament team honors.
Although the Panthers led by double digits the entire second
half, YSU kept battling against the defending Missouri Valley
Conference champions. A Middlebrooks triple with 17:17 remaining
made the score 53-43, but that was as close as the Guins could
get.
UNI took a 67-49 lead with 11:16 remaining, and the margin was
between 14 and 17 points until a UNI bucket with 2:53 left.
Quick Notes from UNI
- YSU's 73 points were the most in a losing effort since a 94-87
loss in double overtime to Milwaukee on Feb. 9, 2008.
- YSU attempted a season-low 17 3-pointers but made a season-best
41.2 percent from beyond the arc.
- YSU was outscored 25-1 in second-chance points.
- The Penguins committed a season-low 12 turnovers.
- For the first time in six games, someone other than Brandi
Brown was the top rebounder. Heidi Schlegel had a team-high six,
including four on the offensive end.
- A season-high four Penguins reached double figures. Monica Touvelle
scored in double figures for the first time this season and third
time of her career.
Brown Scores 1,000 in Homecoming
Junior forward Brandi Brown became the 17th player in Youngstown
State women's basketball history to score 1,000 points on Friday at
LMU. Brown, a California native, scored her 1,000th point on a free
throw with 15:06 remaining in the first half. She did it in front
of about 20 friends and family members.
Brown is the third-fastest player in school history to reach the
1,000-point plateau. She did it in her 65th career game, the fifth
of her junior campaign. Wanda Grant was the fastest to 1,000 points
in 50 games, and Dorothy Bowers did it in 58 games.
1,000-Point Scorers Close to Home
Of the 17 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 Brandi Brown (California) and Jen
Perugini (Ontario) are from 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.
About Three Wins
Youngstown State has started the season with a 3-3 record, which
is its best start since the 2007-08 season. In fact, it took 16
games to get three wins last year, and the Penguins won just three
games combined in 2008-09 and 2009-10.
The Penguins have been particularly successful on the road with
three straight wins (UNI was at a neutral site). The last time YSU
won three straight road games was in 1999-2000 season. YSU freshmen
Kelsea
Fickiesen and Ashley Lawson were
first graders that season.
Middlebrooks is Two from Top 10
Youngstown State senior guard Kenya Middlebrooks is two
3-pointers away from reaching the top 10 in school history for
career 3-pointers. Middlebrooks has 99 treys in her 96 career
games, including 13 in six games this year. She had just 28 triples
in the first 66 games of her career, but she has 71 over her last
30 games – an average of more than 2.3 per contest.
Middlebrooks has attempted the ninth-most 3-pointers in school
history with 337.
Brown's Success at Stripe
A big part of Brandi Brown's increase in scoring over her career
has been because of improvement at the free-throw line. As of Jan.
15 last season, Brown was a career 56.6 percent free-throw shooter,
making 137 of her 242 attempts through 47 games. Since that time,
Brown has made 102 of her last 116 attempts for 88.9 percent in 19
games. Brown closed out last season by making 35 of her final 36
attempts, and she's made 37 of 43 attempts this year.
Thanksgiving in California
California welcomed home two of its natives when YSU celebrated
Thanksgiving in Los Angeles. Macey Nortey is from
Carson, just outside of L.A., and Brandi Brown hails from Pomona,
which is about an hour from L.A. The Guins had Thanksgiving dinner
at the Nortey residence. Both Nortey and Brown had their fathers
see them play collegiately for the first time when YSU played two
games at Loyola Marymount.
Up Next
Youngstown State will remain home to play Bowling Green on
Tuesday at 5:15 p.m. It will be the first half of a doubleheader
with the YSU men's team.
