Cincinnati, Ohio — Youngstown State's women's basketball team dropped its second straight road game on Tuesday night, falling 61-43 to Xavier at the Cintas Center.
The Penguins are now 4-2 this season, while Xavier improved to 4-2 overall and 4-1 on its home court.
Jewel Watkins led Youngstown State with 14 points in 31 minutes, and Erica King scored eight points in her first career start. Bella Samz scored seven points off the bench, and Sarah Baker and Sophia Gregory both grabbed six rebounds. Baker added a game-high three blocks, and Gregory had two blocks, three steals and two assists.
Meri Kanerva led Xavier with 17 points, and she went 4-for-6 from 3-point range as the Musketeers were 7-for-18 from long distance collectively. Kanerva also had three steals to help a much-improved Xavier squad compared with the one that played at Zidian Family Arena in 2023-24 force 29 turnovers. The Musketeers already have three more victories than last season under second-year head coach Billi Chambers.
Xavier held 10-point edges in the first and third periods, and Youngstown State was plus-two in the second and fourth.
Watkins and Samz hit 3-pointers within a two-minute stretch in the first period, and Samz's triple tied the score at 6-6 at the 5:45 mark. Samz then followed a Xavier trey with a layup a minute later to make the score 9-8, but Xavier outscored the Penguins 13-4 the rest of the quarter to take a 22-12 lead.
The Musketeers grew their lead to 13 at 27-14 early in the second quarter, but the Penguins weathered the storm and scored the next six points to get within 27-20 when Abby Liber scored on a steal and layup. Xavier's lead was 33-25 at halftime.
The teams traded baskets in the first 70 seconds of the third quarter, but Xavier forced nine turnovers in the period and held the Penguins to eight points as it extended the lead to 51-33. The largest margin was 61-38 with 6:24 left in the fourth, and Youngstown State held its Big East opponent scoreless the rest of the game.
Youngstown State shot 39% overall, just under Xavier's mark of 42.3%, but the Musketeers made six more field goals overall and four more from 3-point range. Xavier held a 22-11 edge in points off turnovers, and YSU had five-point advantages on second-chance opportunities and fast breaks.
The Penguins will fly from Cincinnati to San Juan, Puerto Rico, on Wednesday as they prepare for the Puerto Rico Clasico tournament. Youngstown State will play a pair of teams coming off of 20-win seasons over Thanksgiving weekend, starting with a contest against Southern Indiana at 11 a.m. Eastern on Friday.
