Youngstown, Ohio — The Youngstown State women's basketball team made 13 3-pointers and had four players score in double figures to cruise to a 79-48 win over Milwaukee on Thursday evening inside Zidian Family Arena at Beeghly Center.
The Penguins, who never trailed and led for 38:01, improve to 17-7 overall and 10-4 in Horizon League play while the Panthers fall to 8-17 overall and 4-10 in league play.
Senior Casey Santoro and sophomore Erica King each scored 17 points, and the duo combined for nine 3-pointers to lead the Penguins. Santoro, who tied a career best with five 3s, also eclipsed the 1,200 career-point plateau and now has 1,203 career points.
Junior Paulina Hernandez poured in 16 points with a pair of triples, while redshirt freshman Sarah Baker added 12 points. Sophomore Sophia Gregory just missed a double-double with nine points and 14 rebounds.
Both teams struggled from the field in the opening minutes, before Baker and Hernandez sparked a 12-0 run over a 3:18 span that turned a 3-3 tie into 15-3 advantage. Baker scored the first five points of the spurt with an old-fashioned three-point play, and Hernandez rattled off seven consecutive points on a 3-pointer, a three-point play, and a free throw.
Although the Penguins shot just 25% in the first stanza, they held a 15-8 at the first break.
Youngstown State outscored the Panthers 22-12 in the second quarter, hitting its four attempts from beyond the arc to create separation and take a 37-20 lead into the locker room.
Gregory sparked the start to the stanza with a three-point play and four consecutive 3s from King, Cameron, Hernandez, another by King ballooned the YSU lead to 30-15 just past the midway point of the quarter.
Following a basket by Milwaukee's Cece McNair, Baker scored five straight for YSU on a three-point play and a baseline jumper, and Santoro's layup at the 2:01 mark gave the Penguins a 20-point lead, 37-17.
Milwaukee's Grace Lomen ended the first half scoring on a 3-pointer with 54 seconds left.
The Panthers scored 10 of the first 13 points of the second half to pull within 10, 40-30, before a Hernandez layup and King's third 3-pointer pushed the YSU lead back to 15 with 4:45 to go in the third. Milwaukee cut the Youngstown State lead down to 11 after a McNair layup with 25 seconds left, but the Panthers trailed by double-digits the rest of the way.
The Penguins began the fourth quarter by scoring on their first seven possessions, and Santoro buried three 3-pointers in a span of two minutes to push the lead to 64-40 with 7:38 on the clock.
The lead reached 32 at 74-42 on a Hernandez layup with 2:51 remaining as YSU scored 21 of the first 25 points of the quarter. The largest advantage was 79-46 on a jumper by King with 32 seconds left.
Youngstown State will host Green Bay on Saturday at 2 p.m. inside Zidian Family Arena at Beeghly Center. It will be the program's annual pink game, and six new members of the YSU Athletics Hall of Fame will be introduced at halftime.
