Green Bay, Wis. — Youngstown State's women's basketball team was within six points in the final four minutes at Green Bay on Thursday night before falling 58-47 to the Phoenix at the Kress Center.
The Penguins trailed by 15 at halftime after Green Bay held a 16-5 edge in the second quarter, but they didn't back down against the significantly more experienced Phoenix. YSU trailed by five midway through the third quarter, and it was a six-point margin with three-and-a-half minutes left in the fourth.
Green Bay got a big 3-pointer from Maddy Schreiber on its next possession to push its lead to 56-47, and a turnaround bucket by Sophia Gregory at the 2:52 mark accounted for the Penguins' final points. The Phoenix scored the final four points for the 11-point victory.
Jewel Watkins scored a game-high 14 points, and she went 2-for-3 from beyond the arc. Malia Magestro also made two triples as part of a 12-point night, and her second 3 was the 200th of her Penguins career. Gregory added 12 points and seven rebounds while going 6-for-9 from the field.
Jasmine Kondrakiewicz and Natalie McNeal both scored 13 points to lead Green Bay, which won its 13th straight game. Schreiber, who missed the game in Youngstown when the Penguins also held the Phoenix to 58 points in an eight-point decision, scored 12 points.
YSU forced Green Bay into a season-high 19 turnovers when the teams played last month at Zidian Family Arena at Beeghly Center, but the Phoenix had just seven on their home court on Thursday. Green Bay was plus-11 in turnover margin, and it outscored the Penguins 18-6 in points off turnovers. YSU had seven turnovers in the fourth period, which hurt its comeback bid.
The Penguins kept Green Bay without a field goal for nearly five minutes at the outset, and YSU's top three scorers each had points as it built a 7-3 lead. After Watkins' driving layup gave the Penguins their four-point lead, Green Bay scored 12 straight points to go up 15-7.
Youngstown State scored the next four points to close the gap to four, and Xoe Rosalez scored on a breakaway layup following a pass ahead by Faith Burch to make the score 17-13 at the end of the quarter.
Erica King's nice pass led to a Burch basket just over two minutes into the second quarter to get the Penguins to within two, but Green Bay scored 14 straight points over a stretch of nearly seven minutes. Watkins ended the drought with a 3-pointer at the 1:02 mark, and Green Bay's lead was 33-18 at halftime.
Youngstown State scored nine of the first 11 points of the second half to get back to within single digits at 35-27. Magestro's milestone triple came at the 6:22 mark and made the score 37-30, and the Penguins trailed just 40-35 with 3:17 on the clock after Watkins scored five straight points. Green Bay scored the next eight points, and Magestro made a layup on YSU's final possession as the Penguins shaved four points off the margin in the quarter.
Watkins then scored in the first 30 seconds of the fourth period to get the Penguins back within single digits. YSU did not allow a field goal until Bailey Butler's layup at the 6:43 mark, but the Penguins couldn't score enough to make up the difference. They got within 51-45 on a Gregory layup from Magestro with 3:33 remaining before Schreiber's 3-pointer upped the margin to nine.
Youngstown State outshot the Phoenix 39.5% to 37.3%, and it was 5-for-12 from beyond the arc compared to 3-for-16 for Green Bay. The Phoenix held a three-point edge at the free-throw line, and they attempted 16 more field goals with the help of their 11 fewer turnovers.
The Penguins will try to split their Wisconsin road trip as they'll play at Milwaukee on Saturday at 3 p.m. The game will be broadcast live on ESPN+ and 1390 WNIO.
