Green Bay, Wis. -- The Youngstown State women's basketball team began its trip to Wisconsin with an 85-47 loss to Green Bay at the Kress Center on Thursday night.
YSU's Abby Liber reached double digits for the second time in her career with 10 points, and Haley Thierry matched her with 10 points. That duo combined to go 12-for-12 from the free-throw line, and Youngstown State finished 16-for-18 collectively at the charity stripe.
Paige Shy made the 150th 3-pointer of her career in the opening minute and finished with six points, and Malia Magestro scored all six of her points in the third quarter. Shy and Dena Jarrells both hit 3-pointers in the first quarter, and YSU didn't make another from long distance until Wisconsin native Bella Samz made the first triple of her career with 1:40 left in the fourth.
Jasmine Kondrakiewicz scored eight of her game-high 16 points in the first quarter for Green Bay, and she drew four fouls in the period. Magestro and YSU's leading scorer Emily Saunders were whistled for two fouls apiece in the first two minutes of the game.
Shy made her milestone 3-pointer 45 seconds into the game to give Youngstown State a 3-2 lead, which ended up being its only advantage of the evening. After that Shy triple, Green Bay scored nine straight points to take an 11-3 advantage.
Youngstown State got within five three different times, the final time coming when Liber made a layup at the 2:08 mark to make the score 17-12. Following the Liber bucket, the Penguins didn't make a field goal for nearly five minutes as Green Bay went on a 15-2 burst to take a 32-14 lead.
The Phoenix grew their lead to 48-21 at halftime, and they outscored the Penguins 37-26 in the second half.
Liber reached double figures with two free throws in the final minute of the third quarter, and Thierry scored on a transition layup in the final 90 seconds to get to 10 points. It was Thierry's third game with at least 10 points and her first since she scored a career-high 16 points at Robert Morris on Dec. 3.
Green Bay made eight of its 11 attempts from the field in the first quarter, and it went on to shoot at least 50% in all four quarters. The Phoenix shot 55.8% overall for the game, and they made nine 3s while going 18-for-27 from the free-throw line. Youngstown State finished shooting 24.6% overall.
Youngstown State will conclude its Wisconsin swing at Milwaukee on Saturday at 1 p.m. Eastern. That contest will be broadcast live on 570 WKBN and ESPN+.
