Lewisburg, Pa. — Youngstown State's women's basketball team was unable to find its shooting touch and suffered its first loss of the 2024-25 season on Saturday morning, falling 51-36 at Bucknell.
The Penguins played well enough defensively to stay within striking distance for most of the game, but they couldn't muster a run together early enough on the offensive end to win in their first road contest of the campaign.
Youngstown State is now 4-1 overall, while Bucknell won its second straight home game to improve to 2-4.
Jewel Watkins led the Penguins with nine points with seven of them coming from the free-throw line, and Malia Magestro scored all eight of her points in the second half. Nine different Penguins scored in the contest.
Bucknell post Ashley Sofilkanich nearly had a triple-double, finishing with 19 points, 12 rebounds and nine blocks. Her length, and the Bison's length collectively, bothered the Penguins, who shot 15% from the field.
YSU held Bucknell to 34.8% shooting, and a second-half press helped the Penguins hold a 22-11 edge in forced turnovers and a 20-4 advantage in points off turnovers. Youngstown State had 10 steals, and Xoe Rosalez had four of them individually.
Youngstown State's first field goal came when Bella Samz hit a jumper at the first-quarter buzzer, and the Penguins were within 13-5 despite going 1-for-14 from the field in the quarter. Watkins' driving layup got the Penguins within seven at 16-9 at the 7:37 mark of the second quarter, but they couldn't get another bucket until Sarah Baker's jumper in the paint on their final possession of the period. Bucknell's lead at halftime was 25-11.
The teams combined for four points in the first five minutes of the second half before Bucknell went on a 9-1 run to take its largest lead of the afternoon at 36-14 with 1:37 on the clock. The Penguins kept fighting and turned up the aggressiveness on the offensive end, and they scored 22 points in the final 12 minutes at Sojka Pavilion.
Sophia Gregory, who played 12 minutes in the second half, scored inside on a pass from Magestro with 80 seconds left in the third quarter, and Magestro and Watkins made four free throws on YSU's final two possessions to allow YSU to build some momentum for the fourth.
Youngstown State scored six straight points as part of a 12-4 run in the fourth quarter to get within 46-33 with 2:40 remaining, but Magestro's 3-pointer at that marker was their final field goal of the contest. YSU held Bucknell without a field goal for the final 4:20.
The teams combined to attempt 58 free throws in the game as 42 fouls were called, including 32 in the second half. YSU was called for 11 fouls on Sofilkanich in the final 20 minutes.
Youngstown State will play its next three games on the road, starting with a contest at Xavier on Tuesday at 7 p.m.
