Box Score
The Youngstown State women's basketball team outscored Wright State by four points in the second half, but came up short after a rough first stanza losing 85-70 to the Raiders on Wednesday night at the Beeghly Center.
In a matchup of teams sitting in second and third place in the standings, the Raiders improved to 22-8 overall and 11-4 in the Horizon League while YSU drops to 13-15 and 9-6.
YSU trailed by 19 at halftime and tried to mount a comeback bid through the second half. But the closest Guins could get was 14 on two occasions - 77-63 with 5:59 left and 79-65 with 4:30 remaining. Youngstown State had 45 points in the second half after scoring 25 in first half.
Heidi Schlegel finished with 24 points and 15 rebounds for her ninth double-double of the campaign. It was the 17th time she eclipsed the 20-point mark. Kelsea Newman came off the bench to score a career-high 17 points. Newman made six field goals in the contest, five of which came from behind the 3-point arc.
For the game, the Penguins shot 40 percent (26-of-65) after making 17-of-35 second-half attempts. Wright State shot 46.3 percent (31-of-67) for the game after making 18-of-36 shots (50 percent) in the opening half.
Wright State made 11 of its first 13 field goals in the second half and was able to increase its advantage to 23 with 13:02 left.
Kim Demmings and Tay'ler Mingo scored 22 points in the contest. Ivory James added 16 and Tayler Stanton had 10 for the Raiders.
In the first half, the Penguins had a tough time finding their shooting rhythm and turned the ball over 13 times. YSU connected on just 30 percent (9-of-30) from the field and Wright State scored 15 points off of the Penguins' miscues.
Contrastly, the Raiders connected on 50 percent (18-of-36) of their field goals, including four 3-pointers, and committed just five turnovers.
After the Raiders scored the first five points of the game, freshman Jenna Hirsch hit a jumper and a 3-pointer to tie the game at the 18:02 mark.
The Raiders used a 14-4 run early in the first half to turn a 5-5 tie into a 19-9 lead with just over 12 minutes remaining.
Baskets by Schlegel and Karen Flagg got the Penguins within eight, 21-13, but the Raiders used 16-4 run to push the lead to 20 points, 37-17, with 3:25 left. During that stretch, the Penguins missed five straight field-goal attempts and committed four turnovers.
A jumper by Schegel and a 3-pointer by Newman trimmed the deficit to 15, 37-22, with 1:43 left, but the Raiders took a 44-25 lead into the lockerroom.
YSU concludes the regular season on Saturday against Cleveland State. Tipoff at the Beeghly Center is set for 2:05 p.m. It marks the final home games for Liz Hornberger, Flagg, Monica Touvelle and Melissa Thompson.
The Penguins also need to knock off the Vikings to secure a first-round home game in the Horizon League Tournament quarterfinals.
