Youngstown, Ohio — Jewel Watkins scored her 1,000th career point to highlight an impressive offensive performance by Youngstown State's women's basketball team in a 73-56 victory over Oakland on Sunday at Zidian Family Arena at Beeghly Center.
Watkins came into the day needing 19 points to reach the career milestone, and she scored a game-high 22 points in the win. She was 4-for-8 from 3-point range, 8-for-18 from the field overall, and she went 2-for-2 at the free-throw line when her career total was 998 points. The senior from Columbus, Ohio, made both free throws with 4:28 on the clock to get to 1,000 overall and 19 on Sunday, and she drilled her fourth 3-pointer of the game two possessions later.
Malia Magestro, who scored her 1,000th career point in November, scored 19 points with game highs of five 3-pointers and five assists, and she had 14 of those points in the final 20 minutes behind four second-half triples. Haley Thierry added 10 points and seven rebounds off the bench, and Sophia Gregory scored six points to go along with a game-high 10 rebounds, two steals and two blocks.
Gregory and Thierry helped the Penguins control the glass to the tune of a 37-22 advantage. YSU had 13 offensive rebounds that it converted to 15 second-chance points.
Youngstown State made its first three attempts and its final five tries from beyond the arc, and the Penguins finished 10-for-18 from long distance in the game. Their 55.6% success rate was their best of the season, and the 10 makes were its most against a league opponent this season.
Kylie Buckley led Oakland with 15 points, and the Penguins held Oakland's leading scorer Maddy Skorupski to six points, 13 below her average against league opponents entering the day.
Watkins, Magestro and Xoe Rosalez hit 3-pointers on consecutive positions for the Penguins, and Rosalez's triple gave YSU a 9-6 lead at the 6:36 mark. The Penguins went scoreless over the next four minutes as Oakland went on a 6-0 spurt, but YSU rallied and held a 15-14 lead at the end of the quarter. Faith Burch's putback in the final 10 seconds caused the seventh lead change of the period, and YSU led the rest of the way.
The margin was one again at 21-20 when Buckley made two free throws for Oakland with 5:09 left in the second, but the Penguins scored the final 13 points of the half. Burch scored the first two and final two points of the run, Thierry had a pull-up jumper, and Watkins scored seven points in a three-possession stretch.
The Penguins led 34-20 at halftime, and they led by double digits for all but 52 seconds in the second half.
Macy Smith's 3-pointer with 5:49 left in the third quarter brought the Golden Grizzlies to within eight points after the visitors went on an 11-5 run, but a Watkins steal and a Gregory offensive rebound led to a 3-pointer by Magestro that got the margin back to 42-31. Magestro hit another 3-pointer in the final minute that gave the Penguins a 49-32 lead and capped a 10-1 burst, and the margin was 49-35 heading into the fourth.
Gregory and Watkins scored on the first two possessions of the fourth to put the Penguins up 54-37, and YSU's biggest lead came when Magestro hit a stepback 3-pointer with 6:40 left ot make the score 61-42. Oakland went on an 11-2 run to close the gap to 10 with 3:19 left, but Watkins' 3-pointer with 2:48 on the clock started a 10-1 run for the Penguins to close out the game.
Youngstown State will host Purdue Fort Wayne on Wednesday at Zidian Family Arena at Beeghly Center. Tipoff against the league-leading Mastodons is set for 6:30 p.m.
