The Youngstown State women's basketball team looks to improve to
7-1 at home and win its second straight Horizon League game when it
hosts Loyola on Saturday at Beeghly Center. Tipoff is set for 4:35
p.m., and the game will be the second half of a doubleheader with
the YSU men's basketball team. The contest will be carried live on
570 WKBN, iHeartRadio and the Horizon League Network.
The Penguins are coming off a 72-63 victory over Cleveland State
on Thursday evening in which forwards Brandi Brown and Heidi
Schlegel combined for 46 points and 25 rebounds. Brown matched
her season high with 28 points and added 17 rebounds, three steals
and two assists. She also broke YSU's career record for free-throw
attempts in the contest. Schlegel came off the bench posted season
highs of 18 points and eight rebounds and matched Brown with a
game-high three steals. Fellow forward Karen Flagg finished
with 11 points and four assists. YSU held Cleveland State leading
scorer Shalonda Winton to four second-half points and 14 overall,
eight below her average.
YSU has its best record through 17 games in 15 years at 12-5.
Today, the Penguins will be looking to improve to 3-2 in Horizon
League play for the first time since 2001-02, which was their first
in the conference. To do that, they'll have to win on one day's
rest for the first time all season and for the first time in 11
tries, dating back to last year.
Brown improved on her case to be a first-team all-league player
on Thursday with her 28 points and 17 rebounds against the Vikings.
She ranks in the top 20 nationally in both points and rebounds per
game, and she is the Horizon League leader in rebounds. Freshman Shar'Rae
Davis is the league leader with 4.8 assists per game, and
Schlegel is the league's top scorer off the bench at 10.3 points
per game.
YSU plays four of its next five games on the road, starting at
UIC and Wright State next week.
Tickets and Promotions
Tickets for Saturday's men's and women's basketball doubleheader
available for purchase on YSUsports.com, or in person at the
Beeghly Center ticket office starting at 1 p.m. on Saturday. For
more information on ticket prices, click here. Panera Bread is
sponsoring the fifth annual Basketball Kids Day from noon to 2 p.m.
in the Stambaugh Stadium Gymnasium. The Kids Day is free and open
to children of all ages. Activities will include bounce-a-rounds,
inflatables, skill games, face painting and visits from Pete and
Penny. There will also be a YSU Apparel Sale at Beeghly Center
starting at 1 p.m. featuring game-worn uniforms, warm-ups and other
authentic Penguins gear. Finally, the first 2,500 fans for the day
will receive a water bottle, compliments of State Farm, McDonald's
and myvalleysports.com.
Game Recap vs. Cleveland State
Brandi Brown and Heidi Schlegel combined for 46 points, and
Youngstown State withstood a Cleveland State rally in a 72-63 win
at the Wolstein Center on Thursday.
Brown matched her season high with 28 points and added 17
rebounds, and Schlegel had a season-best 18 points and eight
rebounds.
The Penguins scored 11 of the first 12 points of the game and
led from start to finish. Cleveland State cut the margin to two
with less than seven minutes left, but YSU scored the next seven
points and led by at least five the rest of the way.
- Brown broke YSU's career free throw attempts record. She now
has 546, one more than Dorothy Bowers' 545.
- It was the Penguins' first win at the Wolstein Center since
Feb. 13, 2006. YSU snapped a seven-game skid at the arena.
- YSU held Cleveland State's Shalonda Winton to 14 points, eight
below her season average. She had four points in the second
half.
- Brown's 28 points came on a career-high 26 field-goal
attempts.
- Shar'Rae Davis finished with a game-high seven assists to go
with her seven points.
- Karen Flagg scored 11 points and attempted a career-high 11
free throws.
- The Penguins attempted a season-high 28 free throws.
- The Penguins beat a Horizon League team other than Valparaiso
for the first time since Tisha Hill was the head coach in
2007-08.
- YSU led from wire-to-wire for the first time in a game this
season.
- YSU held scoring edges of 38-30 in the paint, 16-9 off
turnovers, 17-7 in second-chance points and 24-9 in bench
points.
- Monica
Touvelle scored her 400th career point.
Scouting Loyola
Loyola enters Saturday's game with a 6-11 overall mark and a 1-3
mark in league play. The Ramblers won three of its first four games
of the season but has three wins since. Two of Loyola's wins are
against Northern Kentucky and Valparaiso, two teams that beat YSU
earlier this year. Simone Law is Loyola's leader with 13.6 points
and 9.3 rebounds per game, but she's questionable with an injury.
Freshman Taylor Johnson averages 13.2 points and 2.9 steals, and
Monica Albano has made 44 3s.
Last Time vs. Loyola
YSU made a school-record 16 3-pointers, but Loyola went 6-for-6
from the free-throw line in the final minute to hold on for a 78-73
win on Feb. 11 at the Gentile Arena.
Liz
Hornberger made YSU's record-breaking 3-pointer at the 1:22
mark, knotting the score at 72. Loyola got an offensive rebound and
made two free throws on its next possession to start the final
stretch. Kenya Middlebrooks was blocked on a go-ahead 3-point
attempt with under 40 seconds left.
Series With Loyola
Loyola leads the all-time series with Youngstown State 19-5 and
has won three straight contests against the Penguins. YSU's last
win was on March 5, 2011, at Beeghly Center. In fact, all five of
the Penguins' wins in the series have come in Youngstown. The
Ramblers won 82-77 at Beeghly Center last year.
