The Youngstown State women's basketball team held off a second-half charge behind a historic effort from Lilly Ritz to top Wofford 81-72 on Monday evening in Beeghly Center. It was the 2022-23 season opener for both schools.
Ritz scored 27 points and grabbed 20 rebounds for the first 20-20 game by a Penguin in more than nine years, and three other YSU players reached double digits in scoring. Youngstown State never trailed as it knocked off the Terriers, who were picked to finish second in the SoCon and played in the WNIT last season.
Ritz's 27 points came in less than 27 minutes of action as she battled foul trouble. YSU was whistled for 25 of the 46 fouls in the game, and Wofford went 24-for-28 from the free-throw line to offset its 33.3 percent shooting from the field.
In addition to Ritz's 27 points, Paige Shy scored 16 points and went 3-for-6 from beyond the 3-point line, Malia Magestro had 12 points, and Megan Callahan contributed 11. Transfers Emily Saunders (6), Dena Jarrells (5) and Shay-Lee Kirby (4) each scored off the bench in their Penguins debuts.
Rachel Rose and Jackie Carman both had 19 points apiece for Wofford.
The Penguins scored on their first two possessions on a driving layup by Callahan and a bucket on the low block by Ritz. The first double-digit margin came when Kirby hit a long deuce from an out-of-bounds set to make the score 20-9 with 34 seconds left, and YSU led 20-10 after a quarter. YSU went 8-for-10 from inside the arc in the opening period, and Wofford scored eight of its 10 points from the free-throw line.
YSU led by 15 twice in the second period, the first coming when Ritz scored in transition on a pass from Jarrells that made the score 31-16 and forced a Wofford timeout at the 5:45 mark. The Penguins led 37-24 at halftime.
The Terriers scored 24 points in both the third and fourth quarters, and they started the second half on a 13-2 run to get within 39-37 with 6:41 on the clock. The Penguins, who had four turnovers in the entire first half, turned the ball over four times during that early burst by the Terriers. Callahan and Ritz scored on back-to-back possessions to push the margin back to six, and the lead reached double digits again at 56-46 when a Ritz free throw with a minute left capped a 6-0 run. YSU's lead was 59-48 heading into the fourth.
Wofford mounted one more comeback bid in the fourth quarter, but the Penguins weathered the storm again. Shy scored 11 points in the quarter, and her 3-pointer at the 7:40 mark gave YSU a 64-55 lead. She hit another trey with 5:03 on the clock to make the score 69-64, but Wofford kept battling and got to within a point at 73-72 on a fast-break layup by Helen Matthews with 1:52 remaining. That ended up accounting for the Terriers' last points as YSU got five straight stops on defense to preserve the win. Youngstown State's final 10 points came from the free-throw line, and Ritz grabbed her 20th rebound on the final possession of the game.
Youngstown State will play its next three games on the road, starting with a contest at Penn State on Nov. 15 at 7 p.m.
