Youngstown, Ohio — The Youngstown State women's basketball team had a tough night shooting from the field and fell 62-56 to Northern Kentucky on Wednesday night in the Beeghly Center.
The Penguins had their three-game home winning streak snapped, and NKU won for the second time in the last three games. YSU is now 7-13 overall and 3-7 in Horizon League games, and NKU improved to 4-14 and 2-7.
Emily Saunders scored 17 points and was 8-for-11 from the field, and she added seven rebounds and three blocks. Dena Jarrells scored 15 points and had four assists while grabbing six rebounds, and Malia Magestro and Shay-Lee Kirby finished nine and eight points respectively.
Macy Blevins scored a game-high 20 points, and Carter McCray finished with 13 points and 12 rebounds for the Norse.
Youngstown State trimmed an 18-point third-quarter deficit down to four in the final minute, but the Penguins couldn't come up with enough buckets despite a strong defensive effort down the stretch. YSU allowed just one field goal in the final 11:55 of the contest and held NKU to 62 after the Norse had scored at least 81 points in each of their last three games.
Youngstown State made four of its first five field goal attempts as it raced out to an early 8-3 lead in the first three minutes of the contest. The Penguins, however, made just four of their final 21 attempts the rest of the half as NKU built a 34-25 lead at the intermission.
Kirby scored the Penguins' final eight points of the first period, and her three free throws with 1:57 left in the quarter gave YSU its largest lead at 16-10. The advantage was 16-13 heading into the second, and Saunders gave the Penguins a 20-16 edge on a jumper at the 9:04 mark.
After that Saunders bucket, NKU scored the next seven points as part of a larger 18-5 run to close out the half. A 3-pointer by Jarrells with 7:36 on the clock tied the score at 23, but that was YSU's last field goal of the half. Two free throws by Magestro tied the score again at 25 with 6:58 left, and NKU scored the final nine points of the half.
Kirby led the Penguins at the half with those eight first-quarter points that came in a span of 2:35. Youngstown State was plus-six in rebounding margin, but it committed 11 turnovers that led to 12 points for the Norse. Ten of those points off turnovers came in the second quarter as YSU struggled to find flow on the offensive end.
Saunders and Magestro scored in the first 70 seconds of the third quarter to get the Penguins to within five at 34-29, but NKU scored nine of the next 10 points to take a 43-30 lead with 6:04 on the clock. The Norse led by double digits until YSU cut the margin to nine in the final three minutes.
YSU made four 3s - two by Jarrells and one apiece by Mady Aulbach and Mackenzie Hurd in the final 5:40 of the period, but it couldn't get enough stops on defense to gain any ground. NKU led 57-44 after 30 minutes.
It was the opposite script in the fourth quarter for the Penguins, who got plenty of stops but couldn't muster enough complementary offense. YSU held the Norse to five points total in the quarter, and NKU did not make a field goal for the final 8:12.
YSU missed its first 10 field-goal attempts in the period and went 5-for-19 overall. YSU's first points of the quarter didn't come until Saunders scored with 5:36 left to make the score 60-46. That started a 12-0 run over more than five minutes, and the Penguins closed to within 60-56 on a Haley Thierry free throw with 18.9 seconds left. YSU had to foul three times to get NKU to the free-throw line, and Kennedy Igo knocked down both of her attempts with 14.5 seconds left. The Penguins missed twice on their next opportunity, and NKU ran out the clock.
Youngstown State will begin the second half of its Horizon League schedule by hosting Robert Morris on Saturday at 1:30 p.m. The game against the Colonials at Beeghly Center will be broadcast live on ESPN+ and 570 WKBN.
