Indianapolis, Ind. – Making their first appearance in the Horizon League Championship presented by Barbasol in program history, the Youngstown State women's basketball team dropped a hard-fought 57-49 decision to top-seed Green Bay on Tuesday afternoon at Corteva Coliseum.
The Penguins end the tournament with a 24-9 overall record while Green Bay improves to 25-8 and earns the automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. YSU's season will most likely continue in a to-be-announced postseason event. It was the third straight Horizon League postseason title for the Phoenix.
The second-seeded Penguins pushed the two-time defending champs to the limit before a fourth-quarter push for Green Bay proved to be the difference.
YSU took a 43-42 lead when Paulina Hernandez muscled in a layup with 7:02 left in the game. Green Bay's Jenna Guyer made a pair of free throws 43 seconds later and the Guins never tied or led in the contest again.
Guyer then scored a three-point play with 5:13 remaining and the lead grew to 49-43 a minute later on a Maddy Skorupski 15 footer. With 2:39 left, a reverse layup by Kamy Peppler pushed the Phoenix advantage up to 51-43.
Sophia Gregory's 3-pointer from the top of the key with 2:30 left stopped the Green Bay spurt and trimmed the deficit to five, but the Penguins could get no closer.
YSU trailed 40-39 at the end of the third quarter but was outscored 17-10 in the fourth.
For the game, Green Bay made nine more free throws and scored 14 points off 16 Penguin turnovers. The Guins had four points off nine turnovers and made just three free throws.
Both teams shot 38 percent from the field and YSU went 6-of-26 from beyond the 3-point line. The Guins outrebounded Green Bay, 35-34.
Hernandez came off the bench to score a team-leading 12 points while Gregory added 11. Sixth-year guard Casey Santoro finished the game with nine points and nine rebounds.
Horizon League Player of the Year Jenna Guyer scored a game-high 21 points while Skorupski finished with 13. The duo combined for 23 of Green Bay's 25 first-half points keeping the Phoenix in the game.
The Penguins led 28-25 at halftime and outscored the Phoenix in each of the first two periods. YSU was 12-of-23 from the field and 3-of-9 from behind the 3-point line. The first half featured three ties and four lead changes. YSU shot 52 percent from the field (12-of-23) and on defense held the Phoenix to just 29.4 percent (10-of-34) from the floor.
In the second half, Green Bay shot 50 percent (11-of-22) and was 9-of-14 from the free-throw line. YSU was 8-of-29 and missed 14 3-point attempts in the final 20 minutes.
Santoro and Gregory were named to the all-tournament team for their efforts in the three games. It marks the first time in school history YSU had multiple players named all-tournament team and the first time since 2019 (Alison Smolinski) that a Penguin has been designated all-tournament.
