With its tournament seed still up in the air, Youngstown State will play its 2023-24 regular-season finale at Purdue Fort Wayne on Saturday. Tipoff at the Gates Sports Center is set for 3 p.m., and the game will be broadcast live on 570 WKBN, iHeart, ESPN+ and the ESPN app.

Gameday Info

YSU at Purdue Fort Wayne

A Glimpse at the Guins

• With one day of games remaining in the regular season, Youngstown State can still finish as high as a tie for fourth and place as low as a three-way tie for seventh. With six teams having conference records between 10-9 and 8-11, a slew of seeding possibilities remain with five games tipping between 1 and 3 p.m. on Saturday.
• Youngstown State went 5-2 in February after entering the month in danger of being one of the bottom two seeds. The Penguins were 8-14 overall and 4-8 against the league after a 69-63 loss at IUPUI on Jan. 31, and they are now 13-16 overall and 9-10 in conference play. YSU has won four straight league road games.
• The Penguins went toe-to-toe with league-leading Cleveland State on Tuesday in a 56-53 loss at Beeghly Center. It was a huge improvement from when the Vikings won by 42 in Cleveland on Jan. 6. YSU held its Northeast Ohio rivals to a season-low 29.3% shooting, but the Penguins came up just short at the buzzer.
• YSU ranks third in the Horizon League in scoring defense at 61.7 points per game. Nine of the Penguins' 16 losses have come when they've allowed 66 points or fewer, and they have dropped seven games by six points or less.
• YSU ranks 17th nationally in free-throw percentage at 77.7%, and the Penguins are shooting a league-best 80.7% from the line in conference play.
• Dena Jarrells is the reigning Horizon League Player of the Week after she scored a career-high-tying 25 points at Northern Kentucky last week. Jarrells leads the conference with 2.2 3-pointers per game, and she's fourth in assists per game.
• Malia Magestro and Emily Saunders are both averaging 12.1 points per game in Horizon League play, which ranks 13th and 14th in the conference. Saunders ranks among the top 25 players nationally with a .606 field-goal percentage and 2.2 blocks per game for the season.
• John Nicolais, who is in his 11th season at YSU, is serving as interim head coach. John Barnes had been on leave to focus on family since Oct. 2 before announcing his resignation as head coach on Jan. 19.
• YSU has nine returning letterwinners and three starters back from last year's squad that went 19-11 and tied for third in the Horizon League standings.
• YSU is 40-21 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 six campaigns.

Program Staples

• Shooting 3s: Youngstown State led the Horizon League in 3-pointers per game in eight straight seasons from 2014-15 through 2021-22. The Penguins have made at least 200 3-pointers every season since 2010-11 except the COVID-19-shortened campaign in 2020-21. Individually, a Penguin has ranked in the top seven of the Horizon League individually in 3s per game in each of the last 11 seasons.
• Strong In The Post: The Penguins have had a post be named to the Horizon League's first, second or third-team in nine of the last 11 seasons and 14 times in the last 17. They've had a first-team honoree in three of the last five years, including each of the last two.
• Sharing The Ball: A Penguin has led the Horizon League in assists per game in six of the last eight years. As a team, the Penguins have paced the conference in assists per game in three of the last five campaigns, including 2022-23.
• Academics: YSU has appeared on the WBCA Academic Top 25 Honor Roll 12 times in the last 13 years. The Penguins have been in the top 10 in five of the last eight years. The Penguins were second in both 2019-20 and 2020-21, and they were 12th in 2022-23.
• Postseason Play: YSU has played in the WNIT or the WBI in six of the last 11 years.

Youngstown State vs. Purdue Fort Wayne

A Win Would...

• Allow YSU to finish the regular season with a 14-16 record and an even 10-10 mark in Horizon League play.
• Give YSU a season sweep of the Mastodons and its ninth win in the last 10 meetings with PFW.
• Be YSU's fifth straight on the road.
• Give the Penguins their first win in March since the 2018-19 season. YSU has lost seven straight games in the month.

Milestone Watch

• Dena Jarrells needs three 3-pointers to move into a tie for the 10th most in a single season at YSU. She is three assists shy of 100 this season, which would give her back-to-back season with at least 100.
• Shay-Lee Kirby needs 10 3s for 200 in her career. She is 12 points away from 900 in her career.
• Abby Liber needs three points to reach 100 in her career.
• Malia Magestro is 13 assists from 200, 18 rebounds from 300 and 58 points from 1,000 in her career.
• Paige Shy needs one steal to reach 100 in her career. She is also five field goals away from 250 in her career.
• Haley Thierry needs two steals to reach 50 in her career.

Scouting the Mastodons

• Purdue Fort Wayne is 19-11 overall and 12-7 in Horizon League play following a 70-61 loss to Green Bay on Wednesday. The Mastodons had won four straight games going into the contest, and they are 8-3 since their loss at YSU on Jan. 18. Purdue Fort Wayne has already clinched a top-four seed in the 2024 Barbasol Horizon League Women's Basketball Championship. The 'Dons 19 wins are their most since 2010-11.
• Purdue Fort Wayne is fifth in the Horizon League in both scoring offense (70.5 ppg) and scoring defense (63.5 ppg), and it is holding conference opponents to 61.2 points on average. The Mastodons lead the conference and rank 19th in the country with 8.5 3-pointers per game, and four players have made at least 30 3s. Purdue Fort Wayne is third in the league in turnover margin at plus-3.6, and four different Mastodons have at least 50 assists.
• Individually, Amellia Bromenschenkel is one of the most versatile players in the conference as she leads the Mastodons with 13.3 points and 6.4 rebounds while also ranking among the top three players on the team in 3-pointers (41), assists (64), blocks (20) and steals (43). Shayla Sellers is averaging 11.4 points, and she and Audra Emmerson have both made 57 3-pointers to rank among the top five players in the conference in 3s per game.

Series History and Matchup Notes

Overall: Youngstown State leads 11-3
Barnes/Nicolais Era: 7-1 • Home: 8-1 • Away: 3-2 • Neutral: 0-0
Current Win Streak: 1 by Youngstown State

• Youngstown State leads the all-time series with Purdue Fort Wayne 11-3, and the Penguins have won eight of the last nine meetings. They have also won six straight against the Mastodons in Youngstown. YSU had won seven straight in the series before Purdue Fort Wayne won 67-65 in Indiana in the last matchup. Two of Purdue Fort Wayne's three wins in the series have come in Fort Wayne.
• The teams went nearly 10 years between meetings before the Mastodons joined the Horizon League in the 2020-21 campaign. YSU had its highest scoring output ever in a Horizon League game in a 102-60 victory over Purdue Fort Wayne when the series resumed on Feb. 5, 2021. Since then, YSU has scored in the sixties in all seven meetings as the Mastodons have improved. Defensively, the Penguins have held Purdue Fort Wayne to 60 points or below in seven of the eight meetings since the 'Dons joined the conference.

Last Meeting

Jan. 18, 2024 – at Youngstown State

Recap | Box Score

Youngstown State's positive momentum in the second half of the season started with its 66-57 victory over Purdue Fort Wayne at Beeghly Center on Jan. 18. The Penguins were great defensively as they held PFW's top two scorers, Shayla Sellers and Amellia Bromenschenkel to six points on 2-for-19 shooting from the field. Offensively, Dena Jarrells, Emily Saunders and Paige Shy each scored 16 points, and Shy added seven rebounds and six assists in one of her best games as a Penguin. There were 14 lead changes and five ties before YSU pulled ahead over the final 12-and-a-half minutes. With the score tied at 37, the Penguins scored the final four points of the third quarter and led by as many as 11 in the fourth.

Recapping Cleveland State

Game Summary

Youngstown State went toe-to-toe with first-place Cleveland State on Tuesday night but fell one bucket short, losing 56-53 at Beeghly Center.

The Penguins, who lost to the Vikings by 42 in Cleveland on Jan. 6, lost for just the second time in February and finished the month with a 5-2 record. YSU lost by 42 at Cleveland State in the first meeting.

YSU trailed by as many as eight in the fourth quarter, and it went on an 8-1 run to get within one on a 3-pointer by Dena Jarrells with 2:54 remaining. The Penguins trailed by three and had possession with 11.4 seconds left, and Malia Magestro's tying attempt from well beyond the arc went off the rim.

Shay-Lee Kirby led YSU with 14 points, and she hit a shot from beyond half court at the end of the third quarter that gave the Penguins a 39-38 lead with 10 minutes left. Jarrells finished with 13 points, and Magestro scored 10 points and set a new career high with six assists.

The Penguins' first lead came when Haley Thierry scored at the 3:31 mark to give YSU an 8-6 advantage. That was the first of five lead changes, and YSU held the upper hand for just 1:21 in the contest as the Vikings were able to answer quickly each time. Cleveland State led 10-8 at the end of the first quarter, and the margin was 21-19 at halftime. The Vikings held a 21-4 lead at the end of the first period when the teams met on Jan. 6 in Cleveland.

After Kirby's half-court shot at the end of the third gave the Penguins their one-point lead, Sara Guerriero hit a 3 on Cleveland State's second possession of the fourth period to put the Vikings up 41-39. YSU did not lead again. The final tie came when Thierry went 2-for-2 at the free-throw line at the 8:53 mark, and the Vikings went on a 10-2 run to take a 51-43 lead with 5:09 left.

Notes

• In the first meeting, Cleveland State scored the first eight points of the game and led 21-4 at the end of the first quarter. On Tuesday, YSU held the Vikings to 21 points at halftime.
• The Vikings led the first game by double digits for the final 32 minutes in the meeting on Jan. 6, and they held a lead of at least eight points for 34:13. CSU's largest lead on Tuesday was eight.
• YSU dressed just 10 players, which was a season low, and only eight players made an appearance.
• The Penguins made seven 3-pointers, marking the sixth time in the last seven games that they've made at least seven. After going 0-for-6 in the first quarter, YSU was 7-for-20 the rest of the contest. With at least two games remaining, YSU's season total is 190 3-pointers.
• Dena Jarrells recorded the 100th steal of her career, and she made her 100th 3-pointer as a Penguin. Jarrells has 204 career triples, and 101 of those have come at Youngstown State.
• Jarrells was recognized before the game for scoring the 1,000th point of her career in YSU's game against Milwaukee on Feb. 3.
• Shay-Lee Kirby made the 300th field goal of her career while scoring a team-high 14 points. Kirby is averaging 13.1 points over her last eight games, six in which she's reached double figures. She is 21-for-45 (46.7%) from 3-point range in those eight contests.
• Tuesday was the 10th time this season that Kirby scored in double figures.
• Lindsey Linard grabbed six rebounds, which tied her season high from when she had six in the win over Oakland on Jan. 3.
• Magestro set a new career high with six assists, topping her previous high of five that she had nine different times. Magestro is averaging a career-best 2.3 assists per game in 2023-24, and she needs 13 to reach 200 assists in her career.
• Magestro also scored in double figures for the seventh time in the last eight games and for the 13th time this season. She added three steals, which tied for the highest total in the game.
• Emily Saunders scored six points on just five field-goal attempts, but she contributed elsewhere by grabbing eight rebounds and blocking a game-high three shots. In the two games against Cleveland State this season, Saunders had 10 blocks.
• Haley Thierry tied for team-high honors with eight rebounds, and she added six points and three steals.
• Cleveland State tied its season low in scoring with 56 points, and the Vikings shot a season-worst 29.3% from the field. CSU shot 81.8% on its 22 free-throw attempts, marking its best percentage at the free-throw line since Jan. 10. The Vikings also had a season-low five assists.

Up Next

The 2024 Barbasol Horizon League Women's Basketball Championship begins next week. The date, location and opponent for Youngstown State's first game has yet to be determined. Fore information on the tournament, go to HorizonLeague.com/Indy