Chelsea Olson scored five of her game-high 21 points to begin overtime, and the Youngstown State women's basketball team earned a big road win by topping Cleveland State 77-69 on Friday evening at the Wolstein Center.
Five Penguins combined to make 15 3-pointers, including three in overtime, as they earned their 20th win of the season and stayed in first place in the Horizon League standings. Youngstown State is now 20-4 overall and 14-3 in conference play, and it set a new school record for Horizon League wins. Cleveland State dropped to 15-5 overall and 10-4 against the conference.
In addition to Olson's effort, Mady Aulbach scored a career-high 14 points and held Cleveland State leading scorer Destiny Leo to seven points in the final 35 minutes. Lilly Ritz scored 17 points and tied her season high with 18 rebounds, and Malia Magestro scored nine of her 11 points in the final eight minutes.
Leo finished with 18 points to pace the Vikings, and Nadia Dumas had 14 points. Amele Ngwafang had eight points and 12 rebounds off the bench.
YSU scored the final six points of regulation to force overtime, and it never trailed in the extra session. The Penguins got a stop on the first possession, and Olson, who missed a floater at the fourth-quarter buzzer, made a jumper at the 4:12 mark of overtime to put YSU up 63-61. She then followed a CSU turnover with her fifth 3 of the night to make the score 66-61.
A 3-pointer by Megan Callahan at the 2:16 mark put the Penguins ahead 69-63, and Magestro answered a Vikings 3-pointer with her own triple at the 1:33 mark to make the score 72-66. The Penguins got back-to-back stops on defense to get time off the clock, and the Vikings got into a foul situation over the final 30 seconds. Aulbach went 2-for-2 with 29 seconds left to push the margin to eight, and Magestro hit two with 16 seconds left to give YSU its largest lead of the night at 76-66.
Leo's 3-pointer with 9.7 seconds left accounted for Cleveland State's final points, and Magestro added a free throw for the final margin.
Youngstown State was 15-for-38 from 3-point range for the game, and it made all three of its attempts from long distance in overtime. The Penguins shot 41.5% from the field overall, and they were 8-for-10 from the free-throw line. Cleveland State shot 44.3% from the field, made nine 3-pointers and went 6-for-12 on charity tosses.
The Penguins were clicking early offensively as they led by five twice in the first four-and-a-half minutes of the game. Aulbach's second 3-pointer of the night gave YSU an 11-6 lead at the 7:00 mark, and it was 13-8 following a Ritz basket at the 5:29 mark.
Cleveland State tied the score at 13 on a long 3-pointer by Leo, and the Vikings took an 18-15 lead when Ngwafang completed a 10-2 run at the 1:25 mark. Olson scored six points for the Penguins over the final 85 seconds of the quarter, and Leo had eight for the Vikings. Three of those came on a contested shot from beyond half court at the buzzer that put CSU ahead 26-21.
Olson had nine points in the quarter for the Penguins, and Leo scored 11 for Cleveland State.
Lexi Wagner scored five points in the first 1:11 of the second quarter to tie the score at 26, and the Penguins went on to outscore the Vikings 17-8 in the quarter. A 17-foot jumper by Ritz at the 3:50 mark extended YSU's run to 10 straight points to start the period, and Cleveland State's first points didn't come until a Raevyn Harris layup with 3:12 remaining.
YSU's largest lead of the half came at 38-31 on an Olson basket with 38 seconds left, and Barbara Zieniewska hit a corner 3 in the final five seconds to make it 38-34 at the break.
YSU scored the first five points of the third quarter on an Aulbach 3 and a Ritz putback at 9:11 to extend its lead to 43-34, but the Penguins didn't score for more than six minutes as Cleveland State scored 11 straight points to take a 45-43 lead. Olson squashed the run with a 3-pointer at the 2:48 mark to put YSU up 46-45, and the Penguins led 50-49 at the end of the quarter.
Ritz scored on YSU's first possession of the fourth to put the Penguins up 52-49, but YSU went almost four minutes without a field goal as Cleveland State went on an 8-1 run to take a 57-53 lead. Ritz scored again at the 5:40 mark to get the Penguins within two, but Ngwafang scored the next four points to put Cleveland State ahead 61-55 with 4:24 left in regulation. That was the Vikings' largest lead of the night, but the Penguins held the Vikings scoreless until the 2:32 mark of overtime.
Aulbach's career-best fourth 3-pointer cut the six-point deficit in half at the 4:06 mark, and Magestro tied the game at 61 with a 3 with 2:55 left. Neither team scored for the remainder of regulation.
Youngstown State will conclude its four-game road stretch at Purdue Fort Wayne on Sunday. Tipoff at the Gates Sports Center is set for 2 p.m., and the game will be broadcast live on 1390 WNIO and ESPN+.
