Youngstown, Ohio — Youngstown State had six players score at least eight points, and the Penguins pulled away from Wright State in the second half for a 76-60 win in the first round of the 2026 Barbasol Horizon League Women's Basketball Championship on Wednesday inside Zidian Family Arena at Beeghly Center.
YSU advances to the semifinals of the tournament at Corteva Coliseum in Indianapolis and will play No. 3 Cleveland State on Monday at 2:30 p.m. Youngstown State, the second seed in the bracket, improves to 23-8 overall and punches its ticket to the semifinals for the first time since the 2018-19 season.
Erica King scored a game-high 19 points and made four of YSU's 10 3-pointers, and Sophia Gregory and Casey Santoro each had six assists and just one turnover. Gregory finished with 13 points, Santoro scored 10 of her 12 points at the free-throw line, and Sarah Baker added 10. Paulina Hernandez and Hayden Barrier each scored eight points off the bench, and Barrier's all came in the fourth quarter.
Breezie Williams scored 14 points for No. 9 Wright State, which finished the season with a 10-22 record.
There were seven lead changes in the first half, and Youngstown State clung to a 30-29 lead at halftime. The Penguins shot 54.2% from the field and went 7-for-11 from 3-point range in the second half to outscore the Raiders 46-31 over the final 20 minutes.
King and Gregory hit 3-pointers within a minute of each other for the Penguins in the first quarter, and Gregory followed with a layup to cap an 8-0 run that gave them a 10-5 lead with 5:00 left. YSU's largest lead in the quarter was 20-13 on a Gregory bucket with 1:11 left.
Lauren Scott hit a 3-pointer after an offensive rebound to trim the margin to 20-16 on Wright State's final possession of the quarter, and the Raiders scored nine of the first 11 points of the second quarter to take a 25-22 lead. King made two free throws with 5:39 on the clock to stop a scoring drought of nearly three minutes, and the teams traded one-point leads the rest of the half.
Wright State held a 20-7 rebounding edge at one point in the first half, and the Raiders were 4-for-11 from beyond the arc in the first half. Youngstown State closed the rebounding gap to 36-29 by the end of the game, and Wright State was 1-for-7 from long distance in the fourth quarter as YSU put the finishing touches on a first-round win.
King hit two 3-pointers in the first 80 seconds of the second half to push YSU's lead to 36-29, and the Penguins led by seven two more times at 38-31 and 40-33 before Wright State charged back. Scott's 3-pointer started a five-point burst that trimmed the deficit to 40-38, and the margin was two again at 45-43 with 3:22 remaining. YSU scored the final eight points of the quarter on 3-pointers from Hernandez and Danielle Cameron and two Santoro free throws, and it led 53-43 heading into the fourth.
King scored on the first possession of the fourth to stretch the lead to 12, and a Hernandez basket with 7:52 left gave the Penguins a 59-45 lead. Wright State made one more push by scoring eight straight points to get within 59-53 with 5:57 left, but Barrier stepped up to push YSU across the finish line. The sophomore guard buried a 3-pointer late in a possession to increase the margin to 62-53, and she answered a Wright State bucket with another 3-pointer on YSU's next possession to put the Penguins up 65-55 with five minutes left. She added two free throws at the 3:09 mark to extend her scoring run to eight straight points for YSU. Wright State got no closer than nine the rest of the way.
Monday's semifinal contest against the Vikings will be streamed live on ESPN+ and iHeartRadio. For tickets and other information surrounding the festivities in Indianapolis, visit horizonleague.com/indy.
