Posts Tagged ‘Kenya Middlebrooks’

The Youngstown State University Lady Penguins took the floor at home for the first time this season.  Playing in their fourth game of the year, and coming in with a 2-1 record (33% of last years win total), the Penguins fell to American University of the Patriot League, 48-41.  It was a struggle on offense for the ‘Guins from start to finish.

“It is early in the year and the offense we run takes time”, said Coach Bob Boldon.  “Nobody is more frustrated than me.  The only thing we didn’t miss was a half court shot.  If you are going to compete and win games against good teams, you have to shoot better.”

In the first half, American raced out to an eleven point lead with seven minutes to play.  Youngstown State cut the lead back to five points by intermission and trailed 25-20.  Brandi Brown, the Horizon League Preseason Player of The Year, and Devan Matkin each scored six for the Penguins in the opening stanza.

In the second half, the Penguins reeled off the first five points to make the score 26-25.  The home team surged ahead at the 13:11 mark of the second half, taking a 28-27 lead, their first since it was 2-0 a minute into the game. Tieara Jones got an offensive rebound and battled through three Eagles to get the lead for the Penguins.  At the 10:31 mark, Monica Touvelle hit a three to open a two-point lead for YSU.

The Penguins really struggled on offense, shooting 27.8% from the floor, 18.5% from three, and 50% from the line.

“Defensively, we are getting a little better each game.  Offensively, we seem to be getting worse each game”, noted Boldon.  “We were swapping four players at a time because we are out of shape.  I do like our depth, it gives us the freedom to make more moves, and we will continue to play a lot of people.

With YSU trailing 36-35 and 5:44 left in the game, Heidi Schlegel was fouled on a steal but missed both of the free throws.  To that point in the game, the ‘Guins were just 2-8 from the charity stripe.  Brown hit a shot with 3:40 left in the game to give the Penguins a one point lead.  Lisa Strack went to the line for American and hit both ends of the one-and-one to put the Eagles back in front by a point.

Dobbs connected for three to stretch the Eagles lead to 41-37 with 2:16 left in the contest.  Kenya Middlebrooks got to the line and hit a pair of free throws to cut the Eagles lead to two at 41-39 with 1:34 remaining.  Arron Zimmerman then hit a three-pointer to hoist American into a five point lead with 1:14 left to go.

Brown finished the game with 14 points, one short of the 1,000 point career mark, and 9 rebounds for the Penguins (2-2). Matkin and Middlebrooks finished with six points each.  The Penguins committed 21 turnovers in the loss.

Dobbs gathered 14 points for the Eagles. Stephanie Anya gathered 10 rebounds.  The Eagles had 25 turnovers, but the Penguins only scored 15 points off of those chances.

The Penguins head west to compete in a holiday tournament, which Boldon addressed with mixed emotions.  “It is nice in the sense that Brandi and Macey will get a chance to play in front of their families.  Obviously, I would rather spend the holidays with my family at home, but it is nice to allow their families to see them play.”

Youngstown State’s Kenya Middlebrooks made two free throws with 9.8 seconds remaining to lift the Penguins to a 57-56, come-from-behind win at Bucknell on Wednesday evening at Sojka Pavilion.

The Penguins trailed by 17 early in the second half and were down 56-48 with two minutes left. Brandi Brown‘s three-point play cut the margin to five, and, after a Bucknell turnover on a five-second violation, another three-point play by Middlebrooks made the score 56-54 with 1:53 left.

Brown went 1-for-2 from the line with 14.4 seconds left, and Tieara Jones grabbed the offensive rebound to keep possession. Middlebrooks was fouled on a jumper, and she sank both free throws to give YSU its first lead since the score was 13-12 10 minutes into the game. Bucknell’s Amy Zehner missed a 12-foot jumper from the right side as time expired.

Middlebrooks scored all 10 of her points in the second half, and Brown scored 12 on an off night shooting. Zehner, an impressive freshman, led all scorers with 25 points.  Youngstown State is now 2-1 on the season and has won back-to-back non-conference games on the road for the first time since November 2004.

Up 30-19 at halftime, Bucknell scored eight of the first 10 points of the second period to take a 38-21 lead with 16:28 left. YSU went on an 11-1 run to cut the margin to 39-32 with 12:01 remaining, and five points in 20 seconds by Kelsea Fickieson got the Penguins within five with 6:26 to go.

Bucknell scored the next five points to go back up by 10, and a Zehner jumper at the 3:29 mark put the Bison up 56-46. That accounted for their final points of the night.  Heidi Schlegel‘s lay-up after an offensive rebound started the run with 3:15 left, and the three-point plays by Brown and Middlebrooks came just over a minute later.

YSU was 7-for-32 for 21.9 percent and had two field goals in the final 12 minutes. That included going 5-for-18 from inside 10 feet. Bucknell countered by shooting 48.1 percent, making 13-of-27 from the field.

YSU shot just 31.3 percent but hit three more treys than Bucknell and outscored the Bison by eight from the free-throw line. Bucknell shot 51 percent in a losing effort, largely because of being outscored 28-8 off turnovers. Bucknell had 25 turnovers to YSU’s 14, and the Penguins turned the ball over just three times in the second half.

Youngstown State will host American in its Beeghly Center opener on Monday at 7:05 p.m.

** Story courtesy of YSUSports.com

The Youngstown State women’s basketball team had its highest offensive output since the 2007-08 season and held off a late charge in a 91-81 at IPFW on Sunday afternoon at the Gates Sports Complex.

Brandi Brown scored 18 of her 22 points in the second half, and Kenya Middlebrooks had 17 of her 21 in the first half for YSU, which improved to 1-1 for the season. Heidi Schlegel added 17 points, which shot 51.8 percent from the field.  YSU last scored in the nineties when it had 92 points at Valparaiso on Jan. 31, 2008.

The Penguins led by as many as 24 points with 10-and-a-half minutes remaining, but IPFW made a late run to make the final score close. Although YSU led by double digits the entire second half, a jumper by IPFW’s Anne Boese cut the score to 73-61 with 5:46 to play. Boese then hit a trey with 2:55 left to make the score 82-72.  The Mastodons didn’t hit another field goal until the 1:09 mark, and YSU had upped its lead back to 13 by then.

Boese, who scored 20 points in the opener at Cincinnati on Friday, didn’t score her first points today until there was 18:45 left. She finished with 12 points, and Erin Murphy led the Mastodons with 21. IPFW was 23-for-26 from the free-throw line.

YSU led by 17 early in the second half, but two Hillary Moore free throws made the score 48-37 with 17:53remaining. The Penguins then went on a 19-6 run, capped by a Brown lay-up with 12:04 to play, to go up by 24.

Youngstown State built a 44-29 halftime lead behind 17-first half points from Middlebrooks. The junior guard was 6-for-9 from the field, including 4-for-6 from beyond the arc. She had nine points in less than a four-minute span as YSU went on a 10-0 run to gain separation.

IPFW’s last lead came when Rachel Mauk hit a layup to put the Mastodons up 7-4. Monica Touvelle hit a three to tie the score to spark a 7-0 run, and YSU never trailed again. A Middlebrooks try at the 9:11 mark capped a 10-0 run that gave YSU a 23-12 lead.

Moore’s free throw with 4:33 left made the score 32-23, but Liz Hornberger hit a triple on YSU’s next possession to push the score to 35-23. The margin was never single digits again.

Eleven of IPFW’s 29 points in the first half came from the free-throw line.

Five different Penguins shot better than 50 percent, and nine different Guins had at least one assist. Middlebrooks added five steals.

Youngstown State will wrap up its season-opening three-game road swing at Bucknell on Wednesday. Tipoff inLewisburg, Pa. is set for 7 p.m., and the game will be carried live on 570 WKBN.

The same people who vote on where Youngstown State would finish in the Horizon League this season, also vote for who the best player in the conference is.  Brandi Brown was named the preseason Horizon League Player of The Year, but her team was picked, by the same people, to finish tenth out of ten teams.  Second year coach, Bob Boldon, enters this season optimistic that his team is better for the opening tip this season than they were a year ago.  Down the stretch, the Lady Penguins were hot, and nobody wanted to play them because they came around a corner few thought they could.  The strong finish included three home wins and a buzzer loss in the opening round of the Horizon League Tournament.

This just in – Brandi Brown is really good.  The thing that the Penguins need is consistency from her supporting cast to be successful.  Brown became the first scoring leader in conference history to not be voted onto the league’s first team, thus the Penguins will enter this season with sizeable chips on their shoulders.  Is it a case of as Brown goes, so do the Penguins?

“Yes, that is true”, remarked Boldon. “Last year, Brandi shot the ball 150 to 200 times more than anybody else.  I don’t know if it will be that drastic this year, but she is going to shoot the ball more than anyone else is, Brandi is a really good player.  We need to more consistently provide her help.  It seems that last year when a couple of other players stepped up and had good games, we won.  Brandi is still going to take the last shot, everything will run through her. We still need to improve on scoring when she doesn’t have the ball. She will be a big part of everything until she graduates.”

“We all felt responsible for Brandi not being on the first team last year simply because we underachieved as a team,” Boldon said. “(Being picked to finish 10th) hurt some people’s feelings because they felt like they turned the corner a little bit,” Boldon said. “They thought we should have gotten some more respect from the voters. Whatever fuels us is good for me. There were some people who felt like we weren’t ‘that team’ anymore.”

The Penguins lost Boki Dimitrov to graduation.  Makala Gasparek and Maryum Jenkins will not be playing this year either.  Enter a new group of players, to be custom-molded by Boldon and tidy up a slick spread-motion system. Newcomers Kelsea Fickiesen and Ashley Lawson add some depth at the guard positions.  Junior transfer Devan Matkin further deepens the guard pool.  Second-year guard Melissa Thompson should see more time this season.

Familiar faces to continue the march forward include Kenya Middlebrooks and Liz Hornberger.  Middlebrooks, a senior, and Hornberger, a sophomore, both ranked in the league’s top-10 in three point shooting percentage.   Another sophomore, Monica Touvelle, returns with a wealth of experience, making appearances in all 30 games last season.  Heidi Schlegel could really be a big player for Boldon.  The redshirt freshman played in the first seven games before injuring her foot and missing the remainder of the 2010-11 campaign.

Tiera Jones and Macey Nortey, both seniors, round out Boldon’s active roster.  Jones really came on last year and was very productive when she could stay out of foul trouble.  Nortey is a ball of energy and a vocal presence with a do-what-it-takes attitude.  They should both play a role in the fortunes of this year’s campaign.

“We want to continue to improve on what we did last year”, said Boldon. “The new people we brought in are good shooters and we spent time this offseason working with the players who are returning, and as a result, they have become better shooters as well.  It is a collective movement.”

“There are still a multitude of things that we can teach the players”, said Boldon.  “However, it has been easier this season because the system base was already installed, so we are at a higher starting point.  Our returning players do not know it all, but the turnaround time with them will be quicker this season.  It is more about refreshing them than starting from scratch.”

Boldon’s team opens the season on Friday night at West Virginia.  They then travel to IPFW and Bucknell before returning home for the 2011 home opener against American University on November 21.  This team will not compete for an outright championship this season, however, I would be surprised if they did not win at least 13 games. This year will be more about being competitive and winning games they should win.  With the lack of respect shown by that grand voting panel of Horizon League Wizardry, that means they will finish about 2-28…  I say 14-16.  Hopefully better.

Boldon outlined his short and long-term goals.

“Long term, you start to think about the Horizon League Tournament.  You want to try to get yourself into a favorable position, out of that seven, eight, nine, or ten slot.  We would love to be in a position to host a home game in the tournament.  Short term, we failed to build off of our successes when we had them last year.  We had a little success and got so happy with ourselves that we did not get better.”

Youngstown State University finished the season on a high note and kept their momentum heading into the Horizon League Tournament as they handled Loyola, 84-65, on Senior Day.  Brandi Brown was sensational in the win, scoring 27 points and grabbing seven rebounds.  This was a physical game, especially the first half, when three players had to leave the contest injured, one being Boki Dimitrov.

Bojana Dimitrov was honored as the lone senior player before the game and had to leave the game when she sprained her ankle with 11:31 left in the first half.  Not the storybook ending anyone would have wished for the bubbly Serbian in her last home game.  Brown caught an inadvertent elbow to the face while contesting a shot and would miss a stretch of just over seven minutes for the Penguins, who proved worthy even without Brown holding a 13-11 lead while she was attended to.  When she came back with what looked like a half-roll of Charmin in her nose (see top picture), Brown made up for lost time.  In the second half, she moved into 18th on the YSU all-time scoring list, quite an accomplishment for just a sophomore.

Brown impacted the game as soon as she returned scoring  12 and extending her consecutive free throws made streak to 17-17 on a 5-5 first half.  The streak would end at 17 as she missed the first of two charity tosses in the second half.  With 13:25 left in the game, Brown hit a couple more free throws to put YSU comfortably ahead, 52-38.  Monica Albano did her best to keep Loyola in the game when she buried a three with 10:59 left in the game to cut the YSU lead to 54-43.

Kenya Middlebrooks and Liz Hornberger each hit a three to extend the Penguin lead to 66-55 with 5:58 left in the game.  Albano again responded for Loyola hitting another three from the corner to cut the lead to 66-58.  The Penguins stretched their lead to 80-62 on a pair of free throws from Macey Nortey with 1:38 left in the game.

“Our intensity at practice has really kicked up”, said Hornberger after the game.  “Brandi always shows up and if the rest of the team intensity can stay where it is, we can play with anyone in the league.  We are going into the tournament hot.”

YSU got big numbers from Brown again as she set a few more records.  Brown finished the game with 27 points and moved into 18th all-time on the scoring list.  She also recorded the fifth highest point total in a season.  Hornberger had a career high in points with 12, all threes, and has given some quality minutes the last few games.  Tieara Jones played a solid game recording 11 rebounds to go with her 11 points.  Monica Touvelle (above) and Kenya Middlebrooks each hit four threes.  For Touvelle, the twelve points was a career-high.  In fact, five Penguins hitting double figures had not happened since 2004.

With the win, Youngstown State nabbed their second in a row to end the regular season and improved to 6-23 and 4-14 in the Horizon League.  The 84 points scored was the highest total for the Penguins offense this season who shot a blazing 53.8% from the floor in the second half.

Loyola got a great effort from Monica Albano who finished the game with 34 points.  The Ramblers dipped to 11-18 and 5-13 in the Horizon League.

Coach Bob Boldon talked about the constant improvement and expectations heading into the league tournament.  “The way our offense is run, it takes time to pick things up and develop.  We are better than we were last month and this is when you want the team to be playing their best basketball.  It is better to be a bottom team in a tournament and make crazy things happen, than being one of the good teams and having all of the crazy stuff happen to you.”

Cleveland State rallied from a 12-point deficit in the second half and went 8-for-8 from the free-throw line in the final 40 seconds to beat the Youngstown State women’s basketball team 76-71 on Saturday at the Wolstein Center.

YSU’s Brandi Brown scored 28 points, and Tieara Jones had 14 points and 13 rebounds. Shawnita Garland scored 25 points for Cleveland State, including eight in the final minute. Her steal of a short pass and fast-break lay-up with a minute remaining broke a 66-66 tie.  Shalonda Winton added 20 points for the Vikings, who improved to 17-10 overall and moved into a tie for third place in the league standings at 10-6.

Cleveland State held its largest lead of the game at 43-36 with 15:26 left, but Youngstown State scored 16 straight points over the next three minutes to go up 52-43. Boki Dimitrov’s basket then gave the Penguins their largest lead at 63-51 with 7:04 remaining, but Cleveland State went on a 15-1 run to regain the lead on Garland’s bucket with 2:44 left.

Brown’s basket with 2:24 remaining tied the score at 66-66, and neither team scored until Garland’s steal and lay-up with a minute left. Honesty King hit two free throws with 38.2 seconds remaining to put the Vikings up four, but Brown’s old-fashioned three-point play cut the margin to 70-69 with 25.6 ticks left.  Garland made two free throws for the Vikings to put them up 72-69, and Jones missed the tying 3-pointer from the wing with 14 seconds left. Garland made two free throws with 11.3 seconds remaining, and she hit two more with 4.6 seconds on the clock to finish it off.

Jones had 10 points, six rebounds and three assists at halftime, and Kenya Middlebrooks added seven. Winton had 11 at the break to lead all scorers. Brown had just six points at halftime but erupted for 22 in the second period.

Although the Penguins were turned away late for the second straight game against a top-tier team in the Horizon League standings, they showed a big improvement from their first game against the Vikings. Cleveland State beat YSU 86-65 at Beeghly Center when the teams played on Jan. 29. CSU outscored the Penguins 50-12 in the paint and held a 42-25 rebounding edge in that contest. Today, YSU outscored Cleveland State 34-28 in the paint and matched it on the glass with 30 rebounds.

Youngstown State University’s Lady Penguins returned home to face Butler Thursday.  The Bulldogs wore there special pink breast cancer awareness alternate road jerseys on the visit.  Butler got 34 points from Chloe Hamilton and came away with a 73-56 victory over the Penguins.

The Bulldogs came out of the gates fast with a 10-0 start.  The Butler lead would be as high as 16, but give Youngstown State some credit for hanging in there and cutting the halftime margin to 11.  Butler got big numbers from Hamilton who posted 20 first half points, five rebounds, and an assist.  Youngstown State, trailing 32-21 at the break, got eight from Brandi Brown.

In the first ten minutes of the second half, Butler outscored Youngstown State 24-12 to open up a 56-33 lead.  Alyssa Pittman hit a couple of threes for the Bulldogs to help compile the big lead for Butler.  Youngstown State cut the lead to 14 on some good defense when Kenya Middlebrooks and Macey Nortey each had a steal and Brandi Brown got a couple of transition baskets.  Hamilton (above), however, hit a couple of free throws to put Butler ahead 59-43.

Tieara Jones fouled out with 7:25 left in the game.  Jones had 12 points, 2 rebounds, and an assist for YSU.  With 5:21 left in the game, Hamilton again got fouled and hit two more free throws to put Butler ahead 66-46.  Monica Touvelle had one of her best games as a Penguin with 9 points.

When asked why he left Jones in the game with four fouls, Coach Bob Boldon replied, “I looked down the bench for our 6’4″ replacement player, but she wasn’t there, so I had to leave the 6’1″ player with four fouls in the game. Call it insanity for leaving the 6’1″ player in the game with four fouls, but I am insane.  If we don’t have both Brandi and Tieara in the game we get eaten alive on the boards, so I have to take my chances and leave them in as much as possible.”

With the loss, Youngstown State fell to 3-20 and 1-11 in conference play.  Brown took high scoring honors for YSU, while limping with an apparent right leg injury most of the game,  with 20 points and 9 rebounds.

Butler improved to 15-9 and 9-3 in Horizon League play.  Hamilton finished the game with 34 points and nine rebounds for the Bulldogs in the win.  Senior, Brittany Bowen (below) also had 12 points and eight rebounds for Butler.

After the game, Coach Boldon talked about the struggles his team faced for a second consecutive contest.  “We just miss shots and turn the ball over.  I have never lost that many games in a season in my life.  Apparently, we are coming out not ready to play.  If an athlete comes not ready to play, there is something seriously wrong.”

Tisha Hill, former Youngstown State Coach, returned to Beeghly as a Butler assistant coach.  ” I have very fond memories of my time here.  It was weird being in the visitors locker room, it’s noisy in there. It felt good to come back and everyone welcomed me back with open arms proving just how special of a place this is.”

Youngstown State sophomore forward Brandi Brown scored 24 points and had seven rebounds, but Cleveland State shot 54.2 percent from the field and used a big second-half effort to hand the Penguins an 86-65 loss on Saturday afternoon at the Beeghly Center.

With the win, Cleveland State improves to 12-8 overall and 4-4 in the Horizon League. The Penguins are now 3-17 and 1-8.

On the heels of her peformance, Brown has now scored 707 points while grabbing 503 rebounds in her 50-game Penguins career. She is the just the third player in school history to score 700 points and grab 500 rebounds during her sophomore campaign.  Also for the Penguins, Kenya Middlebrooks scored 16 points, 15 of which came in the first half while Bojana Dimitrov had 13.

Both teams had an impressive first half offensively.  YSU shot 53.8 percent making 14-of-26 from the field while connecting on 7-of-16 (43.8 percent) 3-point attempts. CSU made 18-of-34 attempts (52.9 percent), most coming from inside the paint.

The Vikings scored 30 of their 47 points in the paint and held an 8-0 advantage in second-chance points. On the other hand, the Penguins scored 21 points from behind the 3-point arc compared to just six from deep by CSU.  Both teams combined to go 16-19 from the free-throw line as well.

YSU scored the first four points of the game, but following a 8-0 run by the Vikings had to play catch up the remainder of the half. The Guins cut the deficit to 8-7 on a three-point play by Bojana Dimitrov before the Vikings scored the next five to go on top 13-7.  The Penguins tied the game at 13 scoring the next six points, but CSU scored 11 of the next 14 points grabbing a 24-16 advantage at the midway point of the half.

With 5:07 left before halftime, the Guins pulled within 31-29 on a Middlebrooks 3-pointer.

The Vikings scored 30 of their 47 points in the paint and held an 8-0 advantage in second-chance points. On the other hand, the Penguins scored 21 points from behind the 3-point arc compared to just six from deep by CSU.

YSU cut the deficit to 37-36 on a Brown putback at 3:08 and was within 42-39 on a triple by Middlebrooks with a minute to go. The Vikings scored the next five points, but Middlebrooks drained another three just before the buzzer to pull YSU within 47-42 at halftime.

The Vikings scored the first 11 points of the second half and the Penguins could not get back in the game. After falling behind 58-42, YSU was only able to get within 14, at 60-46 on a 3-pointer by Brown at the 16:16 mark.

The Penguins return to the road on Thursday when they visit Milwaukee. Tipoff for the contest between YSU and the Panthers is set for 8 p.m.

The Youngstown State Lady Penguins could only get better was the general feeling coming into this season under first-year coach Bob Boldon. Boldon has taken the stance that, “close but no cigar“, means nothing.  The improvement since last season is obvious and the team is much more competitive and focused.  Saturday, the Penguins played Detroit, team that demolished the Lady Penguins twice last year.  The Titans ended up winning by nine, 66-57, competitive and close but no cigar, yet again.

In the first half, Detroit built big leads on two separate occasions with the largest being nine.  Jalesa Jones (top photo) paced the Titans with nine first half points as Detroit  was ahead 31-26 at the break.  Brandi Brown had eight points and four rebounds for YSU in the half.  The story was shooting percentage in the opening half.  Youngstown State shot almost 35% from the field, but the Titans shot 41.4%.

In the second half, Maryum Jenkins buried a three from the corner with 15:24 left to make it 41-37 in favor of Detroit.  YSU surged even closer when Kenya Middlebrooks hit a three to cut the lead to just one point at 43-42 with 13:01 left in the game.  As the second half rolled along, Detroit gained control of things and had a 55-47 lead with 8:59 to go.

Brown started to heat up and heat a three with 8:04 left to cut the deficit to three points at 55-52.  Tieara Jones fouled out with just over eight minutes to play.  Jones (next picture down) finished with 10 points and seven boards.

Interesting stat of the game, last year the Horizon League chose to award the Newcomer of The Year award to Detroit’s Yar Shayok instead of Youngstown State’s Brandi Brown.  Brown had much better statistics for the season but was passed over when the chalice was awarded.  In their first head-to-head meeting since that award was given, Brown had 18 points and 10 rebounds.  Shayok finished the game with 17 points and 13 rebounds.

With Detroit ahead 51-47, Dominique Dixon, who finished with 15 points,  hit a pair of free throws to extend the Titans lead to 63-57. With just under a minute to go, YSU went into auto-foul mode and Detroit converted enough to keep the Penguins at arms-length.  Jones finished the game with 13 and Shayok had 17.  The Titans evened their record at 9-9 and 3-4 in the conference.

Youngstown State was paced by Brown’s double-double (18 points, 10 boards).  Boki Dimitrov chipped in with 11 points.  The Penguins fell to 3-16, and 1-7 in the Horizon League.

After the game, Coach Boldon talked about the loss.  “Tieara [Jones] played well for us tonight, we really needed her when she fouled out with eight minutes left.  We came out flat in the second half and we are nota good enough team to try to exchange baskets with anyone.”

Youngstown State University looked pretty solid despite dropping a hard-fought contest to Wright State, 64-61.  Brandi Brown scored 23 points for YSU, but the Penguins were not able to get a good shot with six seconds left and fell to 3-16 and 1-7 in the Horizon League.

The first half was pretty much a coin flip with Wright State calling “heads” and guessing properly.  The Raiders took a one point lead into the locker room, 32-31, but the statistics for the opposing teams were not similar.  Wright State held a 23-12 rebounding adantage, while the Penguins enjoyed a 9-3 advantage in steals.  The Raiders got nine boards from Shaunda Sandifer and ten points from Molly Fox. The Penguins got nine points each from Brandi Brown and Kenya Middlebrooks.  It was surprising that the score was so close at the half when Wright State shot nearly 10% better from the floor than YSU.

With 14:34 left in the game, Middlebrooks hit a three to give YSU a 42-37 lead, their largest of the game to that point.  Maryum Jenkins pushed the lead to 49-43 with just under eleven minutes to go in the game when she buried a three.

With 8:47 left in the game, Wright State grabbed their first lead of the second half, 52-51, when LaShawna Thomas hit a couple of baskets for the visitors.  The Penguins would reclaim a one-point lead with 7:27 left when Brandi Brown gathered in a long rebound on the offensive end and dribbled through three Raider defenders like orange cones for a layup. Thomas tied the contest at 57 when she hit one of two free throws with 4:24 left.

After the game, Coach Boldon talked being competitive.  “Yeah, we played well, but it is still a loss. Until we get tired of losing it will not change and it really has to.  We got some good shots, but the last play was not very good, and I take responsibility for that.”

The Penguins got another solid night out of Brandi Brown, who just continually punches her card and works hard until the final whistle has been blown.  Brown’s evening consisted of 23 points and eight rebounds and the reigning Horizon League Player of The Week was just everywhere on both sides of the court.  Kenya Middlebrooks finished with 14 points.

Wright State got a good night from LaShawna Thomas who knocked down 17 points, as did her teammate Molly Fox.  Maria Bennett also chipped in 15 points for the Raiders who improved to 11-6 overall and 4-2 in the Horizon League.

The Penguins tee it up again Saturday against Detroit as part of a mens-womens doubleheader starting at 5.