Youngstown State's first road game of 2023-24 will be a taste of home for six members of its program as the Penguins head to West Virginia for a Sunday contest. Tipoff at the WVU Colisium against the Mountaineers is set for 4 p.m. The game will be broadcast live on ESPN+ and the 1390 The Gambler's online stream, which is accessible through the iHeart app and the station's website.

Gameday Info

YSU at West Virginia

• When: Sunday, Nov. 19, 2023 | 4 p.m.
• Where: WVU Coliseum | Morgantown, W. Va.
• Watch: ESPN+
• Listen: iHeart.com
• Stats: StatBroadcast
• Social: X | Instagram | Facebook

A Glimpse at the Guins

• Four YSU student-athletes – Dena Jarrells, Shay-Lee Kirby, Emily Saunders and Paige Shy – are West Virginia natives and all played on the same AAU Team in the WV Thunder program. Acting Head Coach John Nicolais is from Elizabeth, W. Va., and assistant coach Teonna Jewell played at Davis & Elkins College. There could be plenty of support for that group in the stands on Sunday.
• Youngstown State went 2-1 during its season-opening homestand with wins over Xavier (55-41) and Slippery Rock (78-32) and a disappointing loss to Western Michigan (54-52). The Penguins were strong defensively in all three games, but they felt like they didn't have their best effort against the Broncos in the two-point loss.
• Saunders was named the Horizon League's first Player of the Week after playing huge roles in both wins last week. She averaged 21 points and 11.5 rebounds while shooting 76% from the field, and she had 12 points against Western Michigan.
• John Nicolais is serving as YSU's Acting Head Coach while John Barnes is on leave to focus on personal family matters. Nicolais has been with the program since 2013-14, and he was YSU's Associate Head Coach for the past two seasons.
• YSU returns nine letterwinners and three starters from last year's squad that posted a 19-11 record and tied for third in the Horizon League standings with a 13-7 conference record. It was the third time in the last six years that YSU finished with at least 19 wins overall and 13 wins within the league.

Program Staples

• Shooting 3s: Youngstown State has led the Horizon League in 3-pointers per game in eight straight seasons from 2014-15 through 2021-22. The Penguins have made at least 200 3-pointers every season since 2010-11 except the COVID-19-shortened campaign in 2020-21. Individually, a Penguin has ranked in the top seven of the Horizon League individually in 3s per game in each of the last 11 seasons.
• Strong In The Post: The Penguins have had a post be named to the Horizon League's first, second or third-team in nine of the last 11 seasons and 14 times in the last 17. They've had a first-team honoree in three of the last five years, including each of the last two.
• Sharing The Ball: A Penguin has led the Horizon League in assists per game in six of the last eight years. As a team, the Penguins have paced the conference in assists per game in three of the last five campaigns, including 2022-23.
• Academics: YSU has appeared on the WBCA Academic Top 25 Honor Roll 12 times in the last 13 years. The Penguins have been in the top 10 in five of the last eight years. The Penguins were second in both 2019-20 and 2020-21, and they were 12th in 2022-23.
• Postseason Play: YSU has played in the WNIT or the WBI in six of the last 11 years.

Youngstown State vs. West Virginia

A Win Would...

• Improve YSU's record to 3-1 this season.
• Be YSU's first over West Virginia since Nov. 19, 1997, and its first victory at the WVU Coliseum since Nov. 23, 1996.
• Snap a three-game losing streak to WVU.
• Be YSU's first win ever over a team in the Big 12 at the time of the contest.
• Give YSU a 1-0 record in road games this season.
• Give Acting Head Coach John Nicolais a 3-1 career record.

Milestone Watch

• Dena Jarrells needs four 3-pointers for 150 in her career, and nine rebounds for 200 in her career.
• Shay-Lee Kirby is 12 rebounds away from 300 in her career and 28 points from 700 in her career.
• Malia Magestro is two points shy of 700 in her career.
• Emily Saunders is 10 points away from 250 in her collegiate career.
• Paige Shy will needs 13 points to score her 500th as a Penguin.

Scouting West Virginia

• West Virginia has a 74-39 win over Loyola Maryland and a 71-62 victory over Pitt to start the 2023-24 season, which is its first under head coach Mark Kellogg. Kellogg came to Morgantown after winning 195 games over eight seasons at Stephen F. Austin.
• WVU has six returners, four of whom were starters, back from last year's team that went 19-12 and advanced to the NCAA Tournament. JJ Quinerly is one of the featured returners, having been a unanimous selection to the All-Big 12 first team and all-defensive team. She is averaging 18.5 points per game, and Arizona transfer Lauren Fields is averaging 18 points while making eight 3s in the first two games.
• The Mountaineers have forced 50 turnovers in their first two games, and they are plus-nine in turnover margin so far.

Series History and Matchup Notes

Overall: West Virginia leads 11-8
Barnes/Nicolais Era: 0-1 • Home: 3-5 • Away: 4-6 • Neutral: 1-0
Current Win Streak: 3 by West Virginia

• Youngstown State is playing West Virginia for the first time since the 2013-14 season, which was the first campaign with John Barnes and John Nicolais on staff. That contest was played at Beeghly Center as the teams played each other three times over three seasons. Two of those meetings were at the WVU Coliseum, and the Mountaineers won all three contests by at more than 20 points.
• Before the three most-recent meetings, YSU had two consecutive wins over WVU as the Penguins possessed one of the top mid-major programs in the country during the back half of the 1990's. YSU won 88-81 on Nov. 23, 1996, in Morgantown, and it followed that with a 96-86 victory at Beeghly Center on Nov. 19, 1997.
• Youngstown State and West Virginia played each other for six straight seasons from 1992-93 through 1997-98.
• Recapping the last meeting: Heidi Schlegel scored a game-high 24 points and went 11-for-13 from the free-throw line as Youngstown State lost 85-58 to West Virginia at Beeghly Center on Nov. 30, 2013. Karen Flagg added a double-double of 14 points and 13 rebounds. Youngstown State shot 22.9% from the field in the first half as the Mountaineers built a 45-24 lead at halftime. WVU held a 40-34 advantage over the final 20 minutes.

Recapping Western Michigan

Game Summary

Full Recap | Box Score | Highlights | John Nicolais Press Conference | Paige Shy Press Conference

Western Michigan's Megan Wagner made two free throws with 3.5 seconds remaining to lift the Broncos past Youngstown State 54-52 on Thursday evening at Beeghly Center.

Youngstown State led 20-14 after a 9-0 run to end the first quarter, but Western Michigan shaved five points off the deficit heading into the fourth. The Broncos scored the first nine points of the final quarter, and YSU had to play from behind the rest of the way.

With the Penguins down 47-39 with just over six minutes left in the game, they started to chip away. A 3-pointer by Dena Jarrells cut the deficit to a possession with 5:27 left, and a Magestro steal and layup at the 3:58 mark got the Penguins to within 50-48.

With the margin at four later in the period, Paige Shy split a pair of free throws, and she hit a long 3-pointer with 1:24 left to knot the score at 52. The Penguins got a stop defensively on WMU's next possession, but Emily Saunders had one of her three misses from the field on YSU's attempt to take its first lead of the quarter. Western Michigan went late in the shot clock on its last possession, and Megan Wagner was awarded two free throws on a drive to the basket with 3.5 seconds left. She made both attempts, and the Penguins had two passes to Saunders from out-of-bounds plays get deflected as the time ran out.

Youngstown State outshot the Broncos 38.5% to 37.9%, but WMU had 13 offensive rebounds that allowed the visitors to take six more shots that resulted in two more field goals than YSU.

WMU held a 14-11 lead midway through the first quarter before Youngstown State closed out the opening session with a 9-0 run. Shay-Lee Kirby tied the game at 14 with 1:50 left in the quarter, and a layup by Saunders, a steal and layup by Jarrells and a putback by Kirby gave the Penguins the six-point lead. YSU missed its first six shots of the second quarter, but it did not trail by more than a point until Western Michigan's 9-0 run to start the fourth.

Notes

• Three players reached double figures for the Penguins, led by Paige Shy's 15 points. Dena Jarrells scored 13 points with six assists while Emily Saunders added 12 points.
• Jarrells recorded the 300th assist of her career and finished with six assists in the contest. She has 132 assists in 33 games as a Penguin, and she had 170 in 80 games at Chattanooga. She ranked third in the Horizon League with 3.9 assists per game last season, and she is averaging 5.0 assists per contest in 2023-24.
• Saunders surpassed 250 career points. Of her 252 career points, she has scored 183 in 33 career games as a Penguin. She has 54 points this season, which is already the second-highest total of her career. Saunders is 25-for-34 from the field for an impressive .735 field-goal percentage. She was limited to nine field-goal attempts against WMU, and the Penguins played Abby Liber at the "5" position defensively down the stretch because the Broncos went with a smaller lineup.
• Malia Magestro grabbed the 200th rebound of her career while adding seven points, two steals and a block. She has made a 3-pointer in all three games this season.
• Shy made her 100th 3-pointer as a Penguin and went 2-for-4 from beyond the arc. She has 101 at Youngstown State and 134 overall in her career, which includes two seasons at Marshall. She scored a season-best 15 points and set a new career high with two blocks in the contest.
• The Penguins got off to a hot start from the field going 9-for-14 and leading 20-14 after the first quarter. YSU was 11-for-38 (28.9%) from the field over the final 30 minutes. The Penguins actually shot better from beyond the arc in the final three periods, making 33.3% of their attempts from long distance and 26.1% inside the arc.
• The game had physical play with 26 fouls called, but there were only 13 free-throw attempts. Western Michigan had only attempted four free throws before Megan Wagner's game-winners with 3.5 seconds left.
• The Broncos held a 36-29 rebounding advantage, which was a huge shift from YSU's first two games. The Penguins outrebounded Xavier 39-25 and Slippery Rock 39-21 in their first two contests.

Up Next

Youngstown State will play two games in Las Vegas as part of a Thanksgiving tournament at The Orleans Hotel & Casino. The Penguins will play Rhode Island on Friday and Northern Arizona on Saturday, and both contests will begin at 5:30 p.m. Eastern.