Posts Tagged ‘Monica Touvelle’

The Youngstown State women’s basketball had three tries to force overtime in the final seconds, but could not connect on any dropping a hard-fought 59-56 decision to Cleveland State in the first round of the Horizon League Tournament on Monday night at the Wolstein Center.

With 8.9 seconds left, the Penguins setup Monica Touvelle for the first try from straight on, but her shot glanced off the left side of the rim. Brandi Brown grabbed the board, but her off-balance 3-pointer from the wing bounced out. Heidi Schlegel grabbed the second rebound and alertly dribbled out to the 3-point line, but her shot at the buzzer didn’t fall as the Vikings advanced to play at Detroit on Wednesday night in the quarterfinals.  The Penguins finish the season 10-20 while Cleveland State improves to 12-18.

YSU turned up the defensive pressure to have a chance to force overtime. The Penguins tied the game early in the second half on two occasions, before the Vikings went on top 27-25 with 17:55 remaining.  At the 8:42 mark, the Vikings went ahead 52-45 on a 3-pointer by Shalonda Winton. YSU pulled within 52-47 on a couple of free throws by Kelsea Fickiesen. However, the Vikes pushed their advantage back to seven at the 7:08 mark on two free throws by Honesty King.

From that point, the team’s struggled offensively down the stretch. Touvelle broke the scoring drought for both teams with a base-line jumper at the 3:03 mark. Brown answered over a minute later driving to the bucket and converted a layup with 1:49 remaining cutting the deficit to 54-51.

Kenya Middlebrooks split a pair of free throws with 1:07 left and with 26.5 seconds left, Melissa Thompson‘s putback of a Middlebrooks missed triple got the Penguins within 56-54.  With 24.4 ticks left, Janelle Adams sank a pair of free throws to push the CSU lead up to 58-54.

Fickiesen quickly drove to the hoop scoring with exactly 18 seconds left.  With 16.6 seconds left, Thompson fouled Honesty King who made the first, but missed the second free throw.  The Penguins quickly moved the ball up the court, but Fickiesen was whistled for a charging foul with 9.8 seconds remaining. The YSU pressure then forced Adams to travel setting up the final 8.9 seconds.

For the game, YSU shot 30.4 percent making 21-of-69 shots, but went just 3-of-22 (13.6 percent) from behind the 3-point arc. All three 3-pointers came in a five-minute span of the second half. CSU shot 36.5 percent from the field converting 23-of-63 attempts.

Fickiesen led the Penguins with 11 points while Middlebrooks and Touvelle each finished with 10. Coleman had game-high honors with 17 points while Shalonda Winton had 15 and King added 13.

Both teams struggled offensively in the first half, shooting a combined 27 percent and committing 26 turnovers, and Cleveland State held a 23-21 lead at halftime. YSU’s defense forced 10 steals as a catalyst to Cleveland State’s 15 first-half turnovers, but the Penguins were 7-for-34 overall from the floor and 0-for-9 from 3-point range offensively.

YSU scored the first four points of the game, but Cleveland State scored six straight points for the first of three lead changes in the opening period. Middlebrooks put the Guins back up 9-8, and her steal and lay-up gave them a 16-12 lead with 6:10 left.

Schlegel’s bucket put YSU up 18-14 with 5:22 remaining, but YSU did not score for nearly five minutes as Cleveland State scored the next nine points to go ahead 23-18. Schlegel made a free-throw with 30.9 seconds left to end the drought, and Fickiesen made a lay-up with less than three seconds left to make the score 23-21 at halftime.

The Youngstown State Lady Penguins fought back after putting themselves in an early hole, but ultimately came up short, falling to Cleveland State.  Over the final seven-and-a-half minutes, the Vikings outscored the Penguins 20-9 and walked away with a 79-69 victory.  YSU committed 28 turnovers, matching a season high, and attempted a season-low 14 3-pointers in the loss.

The loss shook things up for the Horizon League Women’s Tournament.  Had the Penguins (10-19, 4-14) been able to nab the road win, they would have hosted a game Monday night in the first round.  Because of the way it ended, the Lady Penguins will head straight back to the Wolstein Center for a do-over with their local rivals.

The Penguins trailed by as many as 14 in the first half, but were was able to chip away and pulled themselves into the lead midway through the second half.  The Penguins outscored the Vikings 15-7 in the first five minutes of the second half to cut the margin to three, and they took their first lead of the contest when two Macey Nortey free throws at the 9:47 mark made the score 58-57. Cleveland State made two free throws to re-claim the lead, and a Kenya Middlebrooks bucket put YSU up 60-59 with 7:34 left. The Vikings made six of their next seven shots, and YSU missed six free throws in the final 6:37.

Cleveland State shot 63.3 percent in the first half and 50 percent for the game. The Vikings scored 22 of their 33 points in the second half in the final 8:30. YSU shot 40.7 percent and posted a season-high 16 steals.  Cleveland State made 10 of its first 13 shots and ended the first half on a 9-3 run to take a 46-35 lead at halftime. The Vikings led by as many as 14 in the period, and their 9-3 run to end the period came immediately after YSU had cut the deficit to five.

Heidi Schlegel registered her second career double-double with 16 points and 12 rebounds, and Kelsea Fickiesen added a career-best 14 points.  For Cleveland State, Shalonda Winton finished with 25 points, and Takima Keane and Cori Coleman both had 14 points.

The Penguins will enter tournament play as the #10 seed, while Cleveland State will host as the #7 seed.

The Youngstown State University Lady Penguins upheld a tradition that merits special mention.  Donned in pink socks, tape, neckties, laces, and headbands – they made a statement about breast cancer awareness.  Because I have had relatives who fought that form of cancer and won, makes a burly 6′, 250 pound guy a little sappy.  Having lost a couple of loved ones who did not get the cancer detected before the fatal stages makes me remind whoever reads this column to take the awareness portion seriously.  I do.

That being said, the Lady Penguins took to the court to do battle with the Milwaukee Panthers.  This game held significance toward the Penguins chances of possibly hosting a playoff game.  Behind 10 points from Brandi Brown, YSU stormed out to a big lead, blew the big lead in the second half, then regained control.  However, Milwaukee controlled things at the end and turned away the Penguins for a 76-71 win.  YSU had their biggest first half of the season scoring 45, but had their worst conference second half of the season scoring just 26 points.

“There were a lot of possessions where we miscommunicated”, said Coach Bob Boldon.  ”When we watch the films we will se five or six possessions where if we could get a stop, the outcome of the game could have been different.  We couldn’t stop anything in the second half though.”

In the first half, Youngstown State darted out to a 45-34 halftime lead.  The Penguins had a lead as big as 13 as Brandi Brown paced the attack with 10.  Liz Hornberger added nine points and Monica Touvelle hit a couple of threes.  Courtney Lindfors had 11 for the Panthers and Sami Tucker had ten more.  YSU took exactly as many shots (11) more than Milwaukee as their margin at the half.  The keys to the big first half were plenty of offensive rebounding and good defense that caused some turnovers.

In the second half, the refs wanted to make sure the metal ball in their whistles didn’t rust, so they blew them frequently calling plenty of fouls.  It got so bad that YSU committed enough fouls with just over 15 minutes to go in the half, that Milwaukee was in a very early one-and-one situation.

Milwaukee used an 18-7 run to catch YSU with 13:05 left in the game and tie things up at 50.  Then it turned into a seesaw game the rest of the way and Milwaukee found themselves ahead 65-62 with 5:13 left.  Hornberger then hit a three to match her career-high in points and making it a tie game again.

Milwaukee again jumped out to a three-point, 72-69 lead, with just over a minute left Lindfors scored from close range.  Kelsea Fickiesen was fouled on the next possession but missed a pair of free throws that would have made it a one point game.  Milwaukee then hit a three to salt the game away, eventually posting a 76-71 win.

Brown finished the game with 18 points for YSU (10-15, 4-10).  Hornberger tied her career high with 12 points and Melissa Thompson had a good game with ten.  The Penguins play their season finale against Green Bay at 2:05 on Saturday.  It will mark the final game for Macey Nortey, Tierra Jones, and Kenya Middlebrooks, three good ones who are almost out of time on the court.

“We are not a tired team”, said Hornberger afterwards.  ”We can’t go into a half with an 11 point lead and then come out and take minutes off.  We are not that good of a team to take time off.”

Milwaukee got 18 points each out of Tucker and Lindfors in improving to 6-18, and 3-10 in Horizon League play.

Brandi Brown scored 20 points and gathered 10 rebounds to record her eighth double-double of the season (the 35th of her career) and scored in double digits for the 47th time in 51 games.  Statistically speaking, it almost sounds like Brown could be the Horizon League Player of The Year.  Youngstown State jumped on the back of a familiar horse in Brown, to get by Valparaiso, 64-58.

When told after the game it was her 35th double-double, Brown could only say, “Wow, I did not know I had that many.”

“This was different pressure tonight because we are usually not expected to win.  We know we have to play hard regardless of whether we are a favorite to win or an underdog”, said Brown.

Brown tallied six first half points to lead the Penguins to a one-point advantage at the midway buzzer, 21-20.  The Penguins were their own worst enemy in the half, despite having a lead.  Shooting 1-12 from three-point range and 39.1% from the field, YSU did not convert any Valparaiso turnovers into points.  The Crusaders got eight first half points from Laura Richards.  Valpo struggled as badly as YSU in the opening stanza shooting only 32%.

In the second half, YSU opened a ten point lead, 38-28, with 12:09 remaining in the game.  Monica Touvelle hit a three from the corner to supply the margin.  Valpo (5-16, 1-9) closed in a bit going on a 5-0 run to make it 38-33, but Kelsea Fickiesen went on her own little 5-0 run to push the lead back to a comfortable ten points.

Tabitha Gerardot did her best to keep her Crusaders in the game.  Gerardot scored 10 points over a five minute span that found Valparaiso trailing only 54-52 with 3:16 left in the game.  Kenya Middlbrooks hit the dagger free throws to make it 60-55 with 13 seconds to go to secure the lead and the game for Youngstown State (10-11, 5-6).  She went back to the line with a 60-58 lead and promptly drilled another pair for insurance.

It was not an easy game on the eyes.  Both teams struggled at points, Youngstown State was just able piece together more in streaks and runs at a time than Valparaiso.

For the Penguins, Brown paved the way with 20 points.  Touvelle, who finished with 11 points, and Fickiesen, who contributed 9 markers, did a good job scoring in the clutch when it seemed the Penguins were in peril.

“I was a little frustrated tonight”, said Coach Boldon.  ”It is hard to play good after the great atmosphere we had here Saturday night with two teams playing great basketball to go into a weeknight game where at times, we played okay.  Success is something we are still learning here.  There is not a whole lot of winning on the resumes of our players.”

Gerardot was sensational in the second half scoring all of her 15 points.  She also gathered 9 rebounds for the Crusaders. Valpo only used six players the entire game. Ashley Timmerman contributed 14 points for Valpo.

The Penguins return to action at home on Saturday afternoon when they will square off against Butler.  The game will be followed by The Game of Hope that Tony Spano has been working his butt off coordinating.

An integral part of any athletic program turning around for the better depends on consistency.  Granted, the Youngstown State Lady Penguins have taken steps in the right direction all season.  Second-year coach, Bob Boldon and staff have initiated a strong offense where the three-point shot has been a source of good things.  Wright State needed overtime to claim a 71-66 win after the Penguins roared back late to tie things up, once down 15.

“I thought we gave a good effort”, said Coach Boldon.  ”That was a good team sitting all alone in second place.  The energy was real good and I was happy our kids had a chance to play in that kind of atmosphere.”

In the first half, the Penguins struggled in the latter portion with their shooting.  Seemed like every shot hoisted was clanging and the Guins had trouble even getting shots off a couple of times turning the ball over on shot clock violations.  Brandi Brown was the leading scorer for YSU at the break, that comes as no surprise.  What does jump out was that as her teams leading scorer she only had four points and no one was tied with her.  Kim Demmings paced Wright State with five points and the Raiders were ahead 26-22 at the break.

In the second half, the Penguins showed signs of life on threes by Monica Touvelle and Kenya Middlebrooks to cut into a lead that grew to twelve after the break.  With 11:57 left to go in the game, the Raiders were comfortably ahead, 47-36.  Molly Fox started to establish inside dominance after being hit with an offensive foul and three traveling calls in the first half.  Fox completed a traditional three-point play to lengthen the margin to twelve points at 48-36.

Middlebrooks, shaking off a sluggish first half that consisted of going 0-4 from the floor and five turnovers,  collected her second three-pointer of the second half to make it 51-39.  Kelsea Fickiesen snared a rebound on offense and and was fouled making the putback, completing a three-point play that made it 51-41 with 8:45 to play.  Fickiesen would hit another three that made it a 53-47 game after a good defensive effort.  Demmings responded with a 15-foot jumper to give Wright State back a 55-47 lead with 6:45 remaining.

Heidi Schlegel did her best to keep the Penguins alive converting a three-point play with 2:27 to go that made it 57-54 in favor of Wright State.  Brown got a rebound with 27 seconds left but the Penguins could not convert trailing 59-57.  The Raiders inbounded and Demmings was fouled immediately.  Macey Nortey started a drive at the opposing baseline and in 7.9 of the 8.3 seconds that remained, got to the other end and hit a layup to tie the game and force overtime.

“We would have thrown up the white flag in the past”, commented Nortey.  ”We don’t do that anymore.  We learn something each game, win or lose, and if we guard the way we know how, we can compete.”

In the overtime, Demmings took over hitting two quick baskets to put Wright State ahead, 63-59.  With 3:339 left in the extra session, Middlebrooks was fouled and hit a pair of charity tosses to make it 63-61.  Nortey again went the length of the court on a fastbreak to tie the game.  Demmings, however, responded with a three to untie the game.  Fox was whistled for fouling Brown with 1:39 left, sending her to the line, where she hit both free throws to tie the game at 66 apiece.  Not to be outdone, Demmings converted another old-fashioned three-point play to give the Raiders a 69-66 lead with 38.5 seconds remaining.

Brown (above) finished the game with 11 points and 8 rebounds for YSU (9-11, 3-6).  Melissa Thompson followed up a career-effort with another decent start for Boldon, finishing with 8 points.  Schlegel came to life late to finish with 10.  Middlebrooks ended up with 10 points and did well to put aside her shaky first half, showing good composure to mentally regroup at halftime and produce in the second half.  The Penguins went 12-46 from three-point land, second all-time in attempts.

Wright State got 14 points and 10 rebounds from Fox and 25 big points from Demmings.  The Raiders improved to 14-7 overall and 7-2 in the Horizon League.

Next up for the Lady Penguins is a February 2 game against Valparaiso at the Beeghly Center.  Tipoff is set for 7:05.

Coach Bob Boldon said at the beginning of this season that his Lady Penguins would go through peeks and valleys as part of a long-term process.  Thursday’s loss to Loyola was just that, a game of transition.  Three years ago, trailing by 14 with more than a half to play resulted in 30+ point losses.  Saturday afternoon, YSU went back to the drawing board against a very good UIC team, and fought their way back into a game they appeared to have no chance at winning with three minutes left, forcing overtime.  The game was a valley, then a peek, then a valley again.  UIC took control for good in the overtime, hitting some threes and stopping YSU when they needed to as they escaped with a 77-68 win.

“Our kids did a good job today, even in the overtime”, said Boldon.  ”Yesterday we had a good practice and they were just getting after it, so it was nice to see that carried over from yesterday.”

In the first half, the Penguins raced out to an 11-3 lead only to watch in evaporate.  A few minutes later, they were trailing 16-13.  Brandi Brown scored half of the Penguins points in the opening stanza pouring in 12.  UIC’s Taylor Foulks was killing the penguins with 14 first half points, going 4-4 from three-point range.  After 20 minutes, the Penguins trailed 30-24.  Foulks also hit a couple of key three-pointers in the overtime session to help preserve the win.

In the second half, Foulks hit another three that upped the UIC lead to 43-36 with 11:43 left in the game.  UIC increased the lead to 50-39 just under the ten minute mark when Jasmine Bailey pulled up and hit a jumper from the line. Monica Touvelle did all she could hitting a three to cut it to 50-42 on the ensuing possession.

Kenya Middlebrooks, one of the Penguins best shooters, spent most of the second half on the bench with four fouls.  Touvelle hit a three and connected on the baseline for two to cut the lead to 57-49.  Kelsea Fickiesen then connected on a drive that would cut the lead to six at 59-53 with 3:15 remaining in regulation.

Brown was determined to keep her team alive as she gathered an offensive board and made a shot to cut theUIC lead to 61-56 with 1:25 remaining in the game.  YSU used full-court pressure to add some heat, but UIC managed to get the ball downcourt and hit some foul shots down the stretch.  Middlebroks hit a three to make it 63-59 with 1:02 left in favor of the visiting Flames.  A five second call gave the Penguins the ball back but Fickiesen threw an errant inbound pass to turn it over.

Touvelle scored her season-high 14th point to make it a one point game on another three with 15.9 seconds to make it just 63-62.  Full court pressure caused a turnover on the inbound and YSU got possession with a shot to win the game.  Fickiesen was fouled on a drive and sent to the line for a couple of free throws.  After missing the first of two, UIC played ‘ice the shooter’, using a timeout.  Fickiesen hit the second to tie the game with 11.3 seconds remaining.  UIC brought the ball up but Fickiesen intercepted the pass and drove as far as she could before letting a hurried shot hit the front of the rim as the buzzer sounded ending regulation and forcing overtime.

Brown finished with 25 points on 11-16 shooting, she also hauled in eight rebounds for the Penguins.  Touvelle finished with a career-high 19 points and seems to be emerging as another weapon Boldon has with the ball.  YSU falls to 8-8, and 2-3 in league play.

“Our turnovers killed us”, said Touvelle.  ”We are trying to cut back on them.  I had a big turnover in the overtime and we can’t make those mistakes and expect to win.  I missed more shots than I made, but my teammates encouraged me to keep shooting.”

For UIC, Bailey gathered 22 points and Foulks added an additional 23 caroms.  The Flames improved to 10-7 (3-3, HL) and looked like the better team until the collapse.

The Youngstown State women are headed into the hardest part of their schedule, and it got off to a rough start at the Beeghly Center on Thursday.  Loyola built an early ten point lead and never led by less than that until very late in the game, cruising to a 82-77 win over the Lady Penguins.

YSU made it interesting late, but the Ramblers weathered the storm for the win.  When asked if his team may have pulled it out if there were a couple more minutes to play, Coach Bob Boldon remarked, “If it would have went twenty minutes longer, they probably would have scored 100, I’m not sure what we would have ended up with.”

In the first half, Loyola continuously took advantage of an aggressive Penguins defense by working the ball to either wing and throwing cross-court passes to wide open shooters.  Three-point shooting was the key to the Penguins woes on offense in the first half.  YSU shot a dismal 3-18 from long range.  Kelsea Fickiesen hustled for the Penguins  in the first half and seemed to be in a higher gear than her teammates.  Fickiesen had seven rebounds, three on the offensive end, to keep the Penguins in the game.

“We were not getting our shots to fall early on”, said Fickiesen.  ”When you shoot and miss a couple of shots, you have to keep shooting.”

In the second half, Loyola’s Monica Albano, who torched the Penguins for over 50 points in two games last season, caught a little fire.  The Penguins did a good job keeping Albano in check with only two first half points.  However, Albano was able to score 15 second half points.  Every time that YSU looked to be making a move, Albano would make a shot or pass that contributed to the lead growing.

The Penguins continued to scratch and claw to that magic ten point barrier but could not get past it. Heidi Schlegel had a nice put back off of an offensive rebound, and then hit a three to cut Loyola’s lead to 50-37 with 14:10 left to go.  With just over nine minutes to go, Monica Touvelle hit a three to pull the Penguins to within ten at 58-48.

Loyola just kept answering everything the Penguins did right on offense with buckets on their next possession, almost on cue.  With 5:07 left, Brandi Brown hit a pair of free throws to keep YSU in the right neighborhood at 69-58.  Typical of the way the night went, the Ramblers scored on their next chance to nullify any Penguin gains.  Simone Law was eating the Penguins alive in the paint.

With the Penguins down 73-60, Brown caught a Kenya Middlebrooks pass on a fastbreak chance and scored.  Loyola again responded when Katie Kortekamp breezed to the hoop for an easy bucket.  Middlebrooks connected on a three with 1:35 left to cut the lead to 77-68.  Fickiesen hit a three with 23.7 left to make it a 79-74 game.

Youngstown State (8-7, 2-2) got 26 points from Brown, including an impressive 12-13 from the free throw line.  Middlebrooks and Touvelle contributed nine points each.

“You can’t make that many mistakes and expect to win”, said Coach Boldon.  ”You get what you deserve.  We lost to a very good team, although their record may not show it.  They exploited our defense.  They were very well coached and their offense was significantly better than our defense..”

Loyola (7-9, 2-3) was led by Law who finished with 21 points.  Albano knocked down 17 points.  Troy Hambric had another 12 for the Ramblers.

The Penguins welcome a talented UIC team to Youngstown for a 2:05 game on Saturday.

Butler used a 19-5 run in the second half and got 14 second-half points from Devin Brierly in a 73-64 win over the Youngstown State women’s basketball team on Thursday evening at Hinkle Fieldhouse.

YSU grabbed its first lead of the second half at 49-48 with 10:08 remaining, but the Penguins did not make another field goal for almost four minutes. By that time, Butler had gone on a 12-2 spurt to take a 60-51 lead. The Bulldogs had one 3-pointer in the first 30 minutes and five in their final stretch, four of which came from Brierly.

Brandi Brown had 23 points and 12 rebounds, both of which were game highs. Heidi Schlegel and Monica Touvelle both finished with 11 points. Brierly had 19 points to lead four Bulldogs in double figures.

Butler led by as many as seven early in the second half and held a 48-43 advantage with 12 minutes left. YSU scored the next six points and took a 49-48 lead on Melissa Thompson’s bucket in transition. Butler called a time out, and Mandy McDivitt hit a trey to start the decisive run.

Butler shot a season-high 50 percent and was one point shy of its highest scoring total of the campaign. YSU shot 35.8 percent and was outscored 32-18 in the paint and 19-8 in second-chance points.

Youngstown State will play at Valparaiso on Saturday at 2:35 p.m. Eastern. The game will be broadcast live on 570 WKBN.

The last time Youngstown State University beat Cleveland State was January 27, 2007.  On the last day of 2011, the Lady Penguins put together a good team effort, defeating the Vikings, 70-48, and headed into 2012 tied for first in the conference at 1-0.  It also marked the first time YSU has won a conference opener since 2008.  It’s a shame that 2011 is almost over, a year that will surely be earmarked as a giant step forward for the Lady Penguins basketball program.

In the first half, the Penguins opened up with a 14-2 run with 11:27 left in the half. Monica Touvelle (below) went 4-4 from three-point range and led all scorers with YSU heading to their locker room ahead comfortably, 35-22.  Brandi Brown had seven rebounds and six points in a half that saw all active members of the Lady Penguins see some minutes.

“It’s nice to get everyone involved”, remarked Coach Bob Boldon after the game. “They have all done the work in practice all week and deserve to be on the floor.”

In the second half, the Penguins started strong and held a 48-34 lead with 10:54 remaining in the contest.  Boldon’s offense looked lethal at times with just a couple of lapses in the second half.  Cleveland State cut the YSU lead to eleven at 50-39 with 9:23 left on a Shalonda Winton drive to the hoop.

An earthquake shuttered the Beeghly Center during the second half but play continued. “Was that an earthquake?” said Brown.  ” I am used to those being from California, I just thought someone fell.”

With the score 51-40, Brown drilled a three from the corner that got nothing but net. The Penguins held a 54-42 lead with five minutes to go.  Brown would extend the lead to 63-42 with just under three minutes left draining a pair of free throws after being fouled driving the length of the court with a steal.  The Vikings nevr got closer than 15 after the six minute mark of the game.

Brown finished the game with 23 points and 12 boards to notch her fifth double-double of the season and the 32nd of her career.  YSU also got an array of statistics from everyone including Touvelle’s four three-pointers, 16 points and five rebounds from Heidi Schlegel, and six assists from Macey Nortey.  The Penguins shot 42.6 from the floor and cashed in 28 more points off of Vikings turnovers.

“It feels good to go into a New Year with a win”, said Brown.  ”We really executed well as a team and it was a good win for us.”

Cleveland State got 17 points from Winton and eleven more from Imani Gordon.  The Vikings slipped to 5-7 and 0-1 with the loss.

The Lady Penguins (7-5, 1-0) head West to face Butler on Thursday and Valparaiso on Saturday afternoon.

Kenya Middlebrooks scored 13 of her career-high 27 points in the final four minutes as the Youngstown State women’s basketball team rallied to defeat Akron 78-72 on Sunday afternoon at James A. Rhodes Arena.  The Penguins scored 51 points and shot 60 percent after halftime and overcame a 13-point second-half deficit to improve to 6-4 on the season. They’ve now matched their win total from last season and have won five straight road games for the first time since 1997-98. Akron dropped to 5-6.

Youngstown State trailed 60-47 with nine minutes remaining and by eight with five minutes left. Melissa Thompson hit a 3-pointer at the 4:35 mark to start the rally, and Middlebrooks made two free throws after the media timeout to make the score 67-64. Akron upped its lead to 71-65 after two Taylor Ruper free throws at the 3:30 mark, but YSU closed out the game by outscoring the Zips 13-1.

Brandi Brown‘s 3-pointer cut the deficit in half, and Middlebrooks scored the next five points to give the Penguins a 73-71 lead with 1:45 left. Ti’eshia Stubbs made 1-of-2 from the free-throw line to make the score 73-72 with just over a minute left, but Middlebrooks hit her sixth 3-pointer of the game to push the lead to 76-72 with 50 seconds remaining.

Middlebrooks had a steal on Akron’s next possession, and she rebounded Akron’s miss with just over 20 seconds remaining. She made two free throws with 6.6 seconds left for the final margin.

Brown finished with 15 points and 14 rebounds, including 10 of each in the second half. Thompson added a career-high 12 points after having 11 points total in the first nine games.  Hanna Luburgh had 20 points to lead three players in double figures for Akron.

The Penguins outshot the Zips 43.5 percent to 35.7 percent and held the rebounding edge 44-40. Youngstown State made 13 3-pointers, which was two off of the school record. Ten of those triples came on 16 attempts in the second half.  Macey Nortey and Kelsea Fickiesen combined for 11 of YSU’s 19 assists.

Youngstown State battled through a sloppy first half to only trail by four at halftime. The Penguins scored 10 straight points early in the period but trailed by as many as nine before closing the gap late.  Akron hit a triple on the first possession of the game, but the Penguins scored the next 10 points to take a 10-3 lead on a Middlebrooks trey with 17:15 remaining.  After the fast start, YSU got out of sync offensively and committed eight turnovers in the first nine minutes. Akron used that to its advantage and went on a 12-1 run to go up 15-11 with 8:04 left.

Youngstown State’s next game will be at Stony Brook on Dec. 27 at 7 p.m.  Merry Christmas Lady Penguins!

*Story Courtesy of YSU Sports