Youngstown State will play its final non-conference game of the regular season by hosting Point Park on Saturday at Zidian Family Arena at Beeghly Center. The contest against the Division II Pioneers will start at noon, and it will be broadcast live on 1390 WNIO, iHeart and ESPN+.

Gameday Info

• When: Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024 | Noon
• Where: Zidian Family Arena at Beeghly Center | Youngstown, Ohio
• Watch: ESPN+ | espn.com
• Listen: 1390 WNIO | iHeart.com
• Stats: ysusports.com
• Social: X | Instagram | Facebook

Tickets, Promotions & Fan Information

Tickets | Gameday & Parking Information | Visitors Guide | Promotional Sch??edule | YSU Mobile App - iOS - Android

• Advance tickets for Saturday's game are available online through YSUsports.com or by calling (330) 941-1978. The ticket office and gates at Zidian Family Arena at Beeghly Center will open at 11 a.m. on Saturday
• Promotions
  • All general admission tickets are $5 for Holiday Hoops. Come celebrate the holiday season with the Penguins.

A Glimpse at the Guins

• Youngstown State is coming off its first home loss of the season, a 65-58 setback to Detroit Mercy on Wednesday. The Penguins led 23-8 after shooting 52.9% from the field in the first period, but they shot 29.4% the rest of the way as the Titans rallied. YSU is 6-6 overall, 5-1 at home and 2-1 in Horizon League play.
• Following Saturday's game against the Pioneers, YSU won't have another competition for a week. The Penguins will have a four-day holiday break before returning to campus on Dec. 26 to prepare for IU Indianapolis. The game against the Jaguars will be the first of 17 Horizon League games for the Penguins before the conference tournament begins on March 4.
• Fifth-year Penguin Malia Magestro scored a team-high 16 points on Wednesday evening for her double-digit performance since she missed four games with a lower-body injury. Magestro is averaging a career-high 12.6 points per game, which ranks second on the team. Jewel Watkins, a senior transfer, leads YSU in the scoring column with 13.2 points per contest.
• Sophia Gregory scored 15 points and had a game-high four assists in her first start at home versus Detroit Mercy. Gregory became the third true freshman to score at least 15 points in a game for the Penguins this season.
• Watkins and Gregory are two of 10 newcomers on first-year head coach Melissa Jackson's 14-player roster. Jackson has spent the last 16 years in Northeast Ohio, and she has the highest winning percentage of any head coach in Akron history from her five seasons leading the Zips.
• Watkins and fellow transfer Faith Burch are the only two Penguins who have started every game this season. Nine different players have started, and three true freshmen have cracked the starting lineup.
• Youngstown State leads the Horizon League in scoring defense allowing 58.2 points per game. YSU also tops the circuit in 3-point field-goal percentage defense (.291), and it ranks among the top four in blocks per game (second), steals per game (fourth), rebounding margin (second), turnover margin (fourth) and turnovers forced per game (third).
• YSU is 42-23 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 seven campaigns.
• Youngstown State has enjoyed tremendous success at Zidian Family Arena at Beeghly Center. The Penguins have had a winning record at home in 11 of the last 12 seasons, and they are 72-28 on Rosselli Court since the start of the 2018-19 campaign.
• This is YSU's 50th season of NCAA basketball. The Penguins made their NCAA debut in the 1975-76 season, and 2024-25 presents plenty of newness in the program's storied history. Along with Jackson, four new assistant coaches on the bench and 10 newcomers, there are plenty of changes inside Beeghly Center. The arena is now named Zidian Family Arena, and new chairback seats and upgrades to the sound system and videoboard present an improved gameday experience for student-athletes and fans.

Youngstown State vs. Point Park

A Win Would...

• Give YSU a 7-6 overall record and a 6-1 mark in home games.
• Be YSU's third in three meetings with the Pioneers.
• Give the Penguins 31 consecutive victories over non-Division I opponents dating back to 1991.
• Give Head Coach Melissa Jackson her 79th career win and her seventh at Youngstown State.

Milestone Watch

• Faith Burch is closing in on 300 career and 300 career points. She is 16 points from the milestone, and she is 25 rebounds shy.
• Malia Magestro is 19 points away from scoring 1,100 in her career. She is 24 points away from moving into 20th in school history in career points.
• Haley Thierry needs six assists to reach 100 for her career. She is 13 points from 250 in her career, and she needs 26 rebounds to grab 200.

Scouting the Pioneers

• Point Park is 2-9 overall this season, and the Pioneers are 1-5 in Mountain East Conference contests in their first season competing at the NCAA Division II level. Before this season, Point Park competed as NAIA members since 1967.
• Point Park lost 79-63 on Thursday to Clarion, which is a common opponent with Youngstown State. The Penguins beat the Golden Eagles 69-52 at Zidian Family Arena on Nov. 15.
• All five Pioneers starters are averaging between 11.7 and 8.8 points per game. Emma Pavelek leads the team with 11.7 points, and South Range graduate Alexis Giles is averaging 11.4 points while making a team-high 20 3-pointers. Camille Fultz is averaging 7.8 rebounds per contest.

Series History and Matchup Notes

Overall: Youngstown State leads 2-0
Jackson: 1-0 // Home: 2-0 // Away: 0-0 // Neutral: 0-0
Current Win Streak: 2 by Youngstown State

• Youngstown State is 2-0 all-time against Point Park, and the Penguins have scored in the 80s in both games of the series. Dec. 21 seems to be the reserved date on the calendar for the Penguins and Pioneers to play. YSU won the first meeting 84-71 on Dec. 21, 2016, and the second engagement resulted in an 87-41 Penguins victory on Dec. 21, 2021.

YSU vs. non-Division I teams: YSU's last loss to a non-Division I team came to Edinboro on Jan. 13, 1990. Since that time, the Penguins have won 30 consecutive games against non Division I opponents. The Penguins are 84-10 all-time against teams that are currently not in Division I. YSU has played at least one non-Division I opponent in every season since 2013-14 except 2020-21. Earlier this season, YSU beat Lake Erie 95-39 on Nov. 8, and the Penguins topped Clarion 69-52 on Dec. 15.

Last Time vs. Point Park

• Youngstown State scored 53 points in the second half and had its most steals in a game in nine years in an 87-41 victory over Point Park on Dec. 21, 2016. The contest was a School Field Trip Game, presented by Chick-fil-A.
• YSU had 16 steals, and the Penguins scored 35 points off of Point Park's 27 turnovers. Nine of those steals came in the first period as YSU held Point Park, which was an NAIA program at the time, to two points.
• Lilly Ritz had 15 points and four steals in 15 minutes, and Chelsea Olson had 15 points and seven rebounds in 21 minutes.

Up Next

• Following Youngstown State's break from the holidays, it will be all Horizon League games on the schedule. YSU's next contest will be at IU Indianapolis at 2 p.m. on Dec. 28.