• The Youngstown State women's basketball team will conclude non-conference play and its pre-holiday schedule when it hosts Canisius on Thursday at 11 a.m. The game will be the program's annual Chick-fil-A School Day game, and it will be part of a doubleheader with YSU's men's basketball program. The contest will be broadcast live on 1390 WNIO, iHeart, ESPN+ and the ESPN app.

Gameday Info

YSU vs. Canisius

Tickets, Promotions & Fan Information

Tickets | Gameday & Parking Information | Visitors Guide | Promotional Schedule | YSU Mobile App - iOS - Android

• Advance tickets for Thursday's game are available on YSUsports.com, over the phone at (330) 941-1978 or at the Stambaugh Stadium Athletics Ticket Office. The Beeghly Center Ticket Office and gates will open at 10 a.m. on Thursday.
• Promotions
  • School Field Trip Game presented by Chick-fil-A in the Tiffany Square Plaza in Boardman.

A Glimpse at the Guins

• Youngstown State had some positive momentum paused in its game at St. Bonaventure on Saturday as the Penguins lost 55-47. Shay-Lee Kirby made a career-high-tying six 3-pointers and scored 18 points, but YSU got just two points from its posts and settled to get most of their points on nine 3-pointers on 33 attempts.
• The Penguins went into the game against the Bonnies having won their last two games and trailing for just 2:51 in those two victories.
• Even though the offense couldn't answer the call, the defense was strong again in New York as the Bonnies scored 55 points. YSU continues to lead the Horizon League in scoring defense allowing 56.5 points on average. Five of YSU's losses have come when they've allowed 65 points or fewer, and the Penguins have dropped three games by four points or less.
• After playing 10 games in the first 31 days of their season, the Penguins are in a stretch of having just two contests between Dec. 9 and Dec. 29.
• Forward Emily Saunders leads the Penguins with 11.6 points and 6.3 rebounds per game, and she ranks ninth in the country with a .663 field-goal percentage. She is second in the conference with 1.64 blocks per game, and she has blocked at least three shots in four of the past five games.
• YSU is shooting 25.9% from beyond the arc through 11 games, which is very uncharacteristic for both the program and the current players on the roster. The Penguins are shooting 51.2% inside the arc for the season.
• 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 served as YSU's Associate Head Coach in each of the past two seasons.
• The Penguins depend on the strength of six fifth-year seniors and two fourth-year seniors, who supply leadership in the locker room and a veteran presence on the court.
• In total, YSU returns nine letterwinners and three starters from last year's squad that posted a 19-11 record and tied for third in the League standings with a 13-7 conference record. The Penguins were picked to finish third in the league's preseason poll despite losing their top two scorers.
• Youngstown State has enjoyed tremendous success at Beeghly Center. The Penguins have had a winning record at home in 10 of the last 11 seasons, and they are 61-22 on Rosselli Court since the start of the 2018-19 campaign.
• YSU is 31-13 in Horizon League play since the start of the 2021-22 season, and it has won at least 13 conference games in three of the past six campaigns.

Program Staples

• Shooting 3s: Youngstown State 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. Canisius

A Win Would

• Improve YSU's record to 5-7 this season.
• Give the Penguins their seventh straight victory over Canisius.
• Make YSU's record 4-2 at home this season.
• Give YSU its seventh straight victory in its game played immediately before the holiday break.

Milestone Watch

• Mady Aulbach is six field goals shy of 100 in her career, and she's 24 rebounds away from 300 in her career.
• Dena Jarrells needs 29 points to reach 900 in her career.
• Lindsey Linard needs two field goals for 50 in her career.
• Malia Magestro is four points away from 750 in her career. She is also three assists from reaching 150.
• Emily Saunders needs four blocks to reach 50 at YSU.
• Paige Shy needs 14 points to reach 700 in her career, and she is seven 3s from 150 in her career.

Scouting the Golden Griffins

• As it gets ready for its only contest outside of New York in December, Canisius has won four straight games to improve its record to 6-3. The winning streak began with a 63-56 victory at St. Bonaventure, which just topped Youngstown State 55-47. The Golden Griffins are just three wins from matching last season's total.
• Canisius has allowed fewer than 65 points in seven of its nine contests, and the Golden Griffins rank third in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference in scoring offense at 64.9 points per game. They rank 27th in the country with 8.9 3-pointers per game, and they are successful on 38.5% of their 3-point attempts, which ranks 14th in the country. Canisius forces just 11.8 turnovers per game, and it is shooting 58.1% from the free-throw line.
• Individually, Sisi Eleko has six double-doubles in nine games, and she is averaging 16.3 points and 11.3 rebounds. Athina Lexa and Robert Morris transfer Mackenzie Amalia both have 18 3-pointers and are both shooting above 39% from long distance. Eleko was named to the Preseason All-MAAC Third Team, and the Golden Griffins were picked to finish ninth in the conference's preseason poll.

Series History and Matchup Notes

Overall: Youngstown State leads 7-5 Barnes/Nicolais Era: 6-0 • Home: 4-2 • Away: 3-3 • Neutral: 0-0 Current Win Streak: 6 by Youngstown State

• Riding a six-game winning streak in the series, Youngstown State has a 7-5 all-time record against Canisius. Youngstown State won the first meeting between the schools whose mascots are Pete the Penguin and Petey the Griffin on Jan. 30, 1989, but Canisius won five straight between February 1989 and November 2009. The Penguins have won all five meetings since John Barnes became head coach, starting with an 80-48 victory in Buffalo on Dec. 13, 2014.
• On Dec. 1, 2018, Alison Smolinski made a school-record nine 3-pointers in a 62-36 YSU victory at Canisius . She was 9-for-14 overall from long distance in the win, and she made six 3-pointers in the second half as the Penguins outscored the Golden Griffins 34-15 over the final 20 minutes.
• On Nov. 5, 2019, in the 2019-20 season opener, Chelsea Olson delivered the program's first triple-double in 33 years as YSU won 87-59. Olson finished the night with 13 points, 11 assists and 10 rebounds. The Penguins led 28-14 

Last Meeting

Dec. 10, 2022 - at Youngstown State

Lilly Ritz scored 26 points, and the Penguins played strong defense to beat Canisius 75-50 on Dec. 10, 2022, at Beeghly Center. Ritz's 26 points came on 12-for-16 shooting from the field, and she helped YSU hold a 40-20 scoring advantage in the paint. Ritz scored 12 points during a 31-8 run to close the first half as the Penguins went from down 8-7 to up 38-16. Ritz had 16 points at halftime, and Megan Callahan scored a dozen of her 15 points. Defensively, YSU held Canisius a .327 field-goal percentage and forced 21 turnovers.

Recapping St. Bonaventure

Game Summary

St. Bonaventure scored the final 11 points of the third quarter, and that run was enough to separate in a low-scoring game as Youngstown State fell 55-47 on Saturday afternoon at the Reilly Center.

Shay-Lee Kirby made five of her six 3-pointers in the first half, and Dena Jarrells scored 11 of her 13 points in the second half. The Bonnies held Youngstown State's posts to two points, and they swarmed leading scorer Emily Saunders on every touch to keep her without a field goal attempt in 22 minutes.

St. Bonaventure had five players score between nine and 11 points, and forward Claire Cody made three 3-pointers while scoring a team-high 11. She made a 3-pointer to start the decisive burst in the third quarter, and she hit another during that stretch as St. Bonaventure flipped a 31-29 deficit to a 40-31 lead at the end of the period. The Bonnies also scored the first two points of the fourth quarter to take a 42-31 advantage.

YSU got as close as five at 48-43 when Haley Thierry, who made her first career start, scored at the 3:29 mark of the fourth, but SBU's Dani Haskell hit a 3 on the next possession to push the margin back to eight. The difference was at least six the rest of the way.

YSU missed its first four attempts and had three turnovers in the first two minutes of the game before Kirby got hot. She went on a 9-2 run by herself by making three 3-pointers in a stretch of 2:27 to give Youngstown State a 9-5 lead. St. Bonaventure went on a 15-4 spurt to go up 20-13, and the Penguins closed the gap to 23-21 at halftime.

YSU's first points of the second half came on Kirby's sixth 3-pointer at the 5:59 mark, and the Penguins went ahead 29-27 following a 3-pointer by Jarrells and a layup by Thierry. Youngstown State's final lead of the afternoon came when Lindsey Linard scored at the 3:27 mark to make the score 31-29. The Penguins didn't score for more than four minutes after the Linard bucket, and that's when the Bonnies scored the next 13 points.

Notes

• Shay-Lee Kirby made six 3s in the first 24 minutes of the game, and she had 18 of Youngstown State's first 24 points in the contest. She was held scoreless over the final 16 minutes.
• Kirby surpassed 750 career points and scored her 200th point as a Penguin.
• Kirby's six 3-pointers tied her career high from 2019 when she was a freshman at Austin Peay. The six 3s were the most by a Penguin since Malia Magestro made six against St. Francis Brooklyn on Nov. 26, 2022.
• Kirby ranks fifth in the Horizon League with 2.0 3-pointers per game, and her .357 3-point field-goal percentage is the second-best in the conference among players who made at least two 3s per game.
• Kirby has made at least one 3 in nine of her 10 games, and she has made multiple 3s four times. Kirby is averaging career highs in points (9.7), rebounds (4.3), assists (2.4) and 3s (2.0) per game in 2023-24.
• Lindsey Linard scored her 100th point as a Penguin when she made a field goal at the 3:27 mark of the third quarter. That bucket accounted for YSU's only points from posts in the game, and it gave the Penguins their final lead at 31-29.
• Dena Jarrells made her 100th field goal as a Penguin, and she scored 11 of her 13 points in the second half. In the final 20 minutes, Jarrells was 4-for-9 overall from the field and 3-for-7 from 3-point range, and she had five assists.
• Even though the Bonnies kept Emily Saunders from being a factor on the offensive end, she still affected the game on the defensive side. Saunders recorded a career-high four blocks on the defensive end and grabbed a game-high seven rebounds.
• The Bonnies prevailed on their home court in the first-ever meeting between the two schools. Youngstown State shot 35.2% from the field, and nine of its 19 field goals in the game were from beyond the arc. The Penguins missed their only free-throw attempt.
• St. Bonaventure shot 40.7% overall and made seven 3s, and the Bonnies went 4-for-6 at the charity stripe. The Bonnies held a 37-29 rebounding edge, and most of the 50-50 balls went in their favor.
• The Penguins only lost the turnover battle by two, 15-13, but St. Bonaventure did a much better job of converting turnovers into points. The Bonnies held a 17-5 edge in points off turnovers.
• The Bonnies had a huge 27-4 scoring advantage from their reserves.

Up Next

Following Thursday's game against the Golden Griffins, Youngstown State will step away from the court for several days for the holidays. When play resumes on Dec. 29, it will be nothing but Horizon League games going forward for the Penguins. YSU will begin its full conference schedule on Friday, Dec. 29, against Wright State at 6:30 p.m.