Scouting Report
- Youngstown State begins its 14th season of Horizon League play
at 8 p.m. Eastern on Thursday with a game at UIC. The contest will
be broadcast live on 1390 WNIO, iHeartRadio and ESPN 3.
- Youngstown State set a school record with 11 non-league
victories, and they are 11-2 for the first time since 1997-98. That
11-2 mark was the best non-conference record in the Horizon
League.
- YSU finished the non-league schedule leading the circuit in
free-throw percentage, assists and assist-to-turnover ratio. It
ranked second in seven categories.
- YSU won 22 games during the 2014 calendar year, the most since
1999.
- YSU ended non-league play with a 75-63 loss at Cornell on
Friday. The Big Red shot 57 percent for the game and outscored the
Penguins by 16 in the second half.
- The Penguins have been to the semifinals of the Horizon League
Tournament in back-to-back seasons. The 21 league wins over the
past two years is one shy of their combined 22 league wins over the
previous six years.
- YSU opens league play with the four teams that were picked to
finish in the top four of the league in the preseason poll (YSU and
UIC were tied for fourth).
A Win Would...
- Give YSU a 12-2 overall start for the first time since
1997-98.
- Be YSU's third in a league opener in the last four years.
- Be YSU's 23rd in its last 32 games.
On This Date
- YSU is 8-6 all time in games played on Jan. 8, but the Penguins
have not won on the date since beating UMKC in Youngstown in 2001.
YSU has lost five straight games played on Jan. 8.
- One of the five consecutive losses came to UIC at Beeghly
Center in 2004.
- The Penguins are 8-1 all time on Jan. 8 when scoring at least
61 points.
Scouting UIC
- UIC enters league play with a 10-3 overall record, and the
Flames were 8-0 at home during the non-conference schedule.
- The Flames are coming off back-to-back blowout home wins
– 63-28 over Loyola and 104-26 over Robert
Morris-Springfield.
- UIC allows just 51.4 points per game, and opponents shoot just
33.7 percent. The Flames lead the league in both of those
categories, as well as rebounding margin, blocks and steals.
- Ruvanna Campbell leads the league in rebounding (12.9 rpg) and
ranks third in scoring (16.3 ppg), and Terri Bender adds 14.3
points and 3.4 steals per contest.
Series with UIC
- UIC is 18-12 all time against YSU and holds a 9-6 advantage
both home and away in the series.
- YSU has won at the UIC Pavilion in each of the past two
seasons, and the Penguins had won three straight contests against
the Flames before a 73-65 setback at Beeghly Center on Feb. 27,
2014.
- All 30 of the meetings between the teams have been in
conference play. YSU and UIC were both in the Mid-Continent
Conference in 1992-93 and 1993-94.
Last Year vs. UIC
- YSU and UIC split its two meetings last year with each team
winning on the road. The Penguins won 69-58 in the second league
game of the year, but they lost 73-65 on Feb. 27 when they were
battling for the league title.
- Heidi
Schlegel averaged 22.5 points and 8.5 rebounds against the
Flames in 2014. She had 28 points at the UIC Pavilion.
Recapping Cornell
Cornell shot 56.9 percent for the game and outscored YSU by 16
in the second half to beat the Penguins 75-63 on Friday at Newman
Arena.
YSU, which shot 68.2 percent in the first half, held a 39-35
advantage at halftime and still led 44-39 three minutes into the
second half. Cornell outscored YSU 30-9 over the next 11 minutes,
and Youngstown State shot just 29.2 percent in the final 20
minutes.
Cornell sophomore post Nicholle Aston was 11-of-13 shooting for
22 points, and the Big Red outscored YSU 18-0 on offensive
rebounds.
Latisha
Walker scored 14 of her team-high 16 points in the first half,
and Heidi Schlegel had 13 points for Youngstown State.
Quick Notes
- Cornell had 27 assists on 33 field goals while Youngstown State
had 16 assists on 22 buckets. Indiya Benjamin and
Nikki Arbanas
combined for 10 assists and one turnover.
- Cornell shot 62.1 percent in the second half and was 8-for-13
from 3-point range for the game. The Big Red were averaging 3.2
3-pointers per game and shooting 26.6 percent from distance coming
into the contest.
- YSU made seven of its first eight attempts from 3-point range
and finished 11-of-18 for the game. In two games in New York this
season, YSU shot 63.9 percent (23-of-36) from the arc.
- YSU was just 3-for-16 inside the arc in the second half.
- The 19 rebounds for YSU tied for the third-fewest in a game in
school history.
- Cornell's .569 shooting percentage was the highest YSU has
allowed under Coach John
Barnes. The highest by an opponent this year was .423 by
Pittsburgh.
- Cornell was plus-13 in rebounding advantage, which was also a
new high by an opponent in the Barnes era. YSU's largest deficit in
rebounding entering the game was three at Pitt.
Penguins Set School Record for Non-League
Wins
- YSU set a new school record with 11 non-conference victories in
2014-15, surpassing the 10 that the 2012-13 squad posted. The
Penguins were 4-9 in non-league play last year.
- Youngstown State has won 11 of its first 13 games for the first
time since the 1997-98 season and for the seventh time in the
40-year history of the program. YSU was also 11-2 in 1977-78,
1978-79, 1990-91, 1991-92, 1996-97 and 1997-98.
- The Penguins were 10-0 for the first time at the Division I
level and for just the second time (1978-79) before losing at
Pittsburgh on Dec. 21.
Penguins Finish 2014 with 22 Wins
- With its win over Akron on Dec. 29, YSU ended the 2014 calendar
year with a 22-9 record. The 22 victories tied for the fifth-most
for a year in school history, and YSU won at least 20 games in a
calendar year for the eighth time.
- YSU has won a high of 25 games twice, and it happened in
back-to-back years in 1996 and 1997. The Penguins won 24 games in
1998 and 1991, 22 games in 2014, 1999 and 1990 and 20 games in
1979.
Program on the Rise
- YSU has been on a definite upward trend over the last three
years. Since the start of the 2012-13 season, YSU has a 49-28
record for a .636 winning percentage. The Penguins' record over the
previous seven seasons was 48-159 for a .232 winning
percentage.
- Since starting Horizon League play 6-0 last year, YSU is 22-9
over its last 31 games.
- The Penguins have finished in the top three in the Horizon
League and advanced to the semifinals of the conference tournament
in back-to-back seasons and won a game in the WNIT in 2012-13. The
Penguins' 21 league wins over the past two years is one shy of
their combined 22 league wins over the previous six years.
Excelling Academically
- The Youngstown State women's basketball team had another banner
semester this past fall as its 13 student-athletes posted a
combined grade-point average of 3.40. Four Penguins – Nikki
Arbanas, Sarah
Cash, Morgan
Olson and Heidi Schlegel – all had a 4.0 during the
semester.
- The Penguins had a 3.42 GPA in spring 2014 and a 3.46 last
fall. There were two Penguins on the Horizon League's five-member
academic all-conference team in 2013-14.
- The Penguins were ranked in the WBCA Academic Top 25 in each of
the two previous years. YSU was sixth on the Academic Top 25 in
2011-12 and 17th in 2012-13.
