Las Vegas, Nev. — The Youngstown State women's basketball team forced 21 turnovers defensively but couldn't support the effort on the offensive end in a 63-50 loss to Rhode Island on Friday at Orleans Arena.
The Penguins were held to 36% shooting against the preseason favorites to win the Atlantic 10 in their first game of the Las Vegas Holiday Classic at the Orleans Hotel & Casino.
Shay-Lee Kirby led the Penguins with a season-high 10 points, and Dena Jarrells and Aby Liber both finished with eight points. For Liber, the eight points represented a career-high total. All nine Penguins who played more than three minutes scored in the game.
Sophie Phillips scored 23 points, going 8-for-12 overall from the field and 5-for-9 from 3-point range, to lead Rhode Island. Mayé Touré scored 16 points while grabbing seven rebounds, and Teisha Hyman grabbed a game-best 14 rebounds or URI, which improved to 4-2. Youngstown State is now 3-3 this season.
Youngstown State led 10-8 when Kirby made a 3-pointer with 5:21 left in the opening quarter, but Rhode Island scored the final 10 points of the period and did not trail again. YSU was 4-for-8 from the field after Kirby's triple, but it was 2-for-13 the rest of the half as the Rams took a 31-20 lead at halftime.
The Penguins kept clawing and got as close as eight at 34-26 on a Paige Shy bucket with 6:46 left in the third quarter, but two 3-pointers by Phillips pushed URI's advantage back to 14. Haley Thierry ended a scoring drought of nearly four minutes to make it a 12-point game, and Rhode Island's lead was 43-30 after 30 minutes.
YSU went on a 9-2 run early in the fourth quarter and got to within 49-39 on a Liber basket with 6:46 on the clock, but that's as close as the Penguins would get. Rhode Island answered with an 8-0 run over the next three minutes and took its largest lead of the day at 57-39.
Youngstown State was 18-for-50 overall from the field and 3-for-15 from 3-point range in the contest. It stayed in the game in the first half by making 5-of-6 from the free-throw line, and YSU finished 11-for-17 on charity tosses for the game.
Rhode Island shot 45.3% overall, and the Rams went 6-for-13 from long distance with Phillips leading the way.
Youngstown State will try to earn a split on its trip to Las Vegas when it takes on Northern Arizona on Saturday at 5:30 p.m. Eastern. Drae Smith will have the call live from Orleans Arena on 1390 WNIO and iHeart.
