Posts Tagged ‘Kenya Middlebrooks’

Sophomore Brandi Brown tied her career high with 29 points and the Youngstown State women’s basketball team made some key free throws down the stretch to beat Valparaiso 61-55 on Thursday night at the Athletics Recreation Center.

The win on the road was the first for the Penguins away from the Beeghly Center since March 8, 2008, which came at UIC. It also snaps a 22-game Horizon League losing streak dating back to a win over the Crusaders at the Beeghly Center on March 7, 2009.

The Penguins are now 3-13 overall and improve to 1-4 in the Horizon League while Valpo drops to 3-13 and 0-4.

Brown was 12-of-19 on the night and also finished with 18 rebounds, including nine on the offensive glass. Brown had previously scored 29 points earlier this year against IPFW.

Kenya Middlebrooks finished with 13 points while Boki Dimitrov added 11 in a winning effort. Combined from the free-throw line, those two players were 10-of-12. Valpo’s Betsy Adams was the only Crusader to reach double figures as she finished with 20.

The Penguins came out strong from the opening tap and never trailed in the contest.

Youngstown State came out and took control of the game early scoring 16 of the first 19 points taking a 16-3 lead at the 14:07 mark on a Brown basket.

YSU opened the game scoring the first five points before Valpo got on the scoreboard on a 3-pointer by Adams. But the Guins scored the next 11 points as Brown scored the first five, Dimitrov and Nortey each followed with layups and then Brown capped the run with a jumper.

The Crusaders cut the deficit to 18-15 as the Guins picked up just two points on a Middlebrooks bucket in a 9:06 span.

YSU led 23-17 with 4:23 left following two Middlebrooks free throws and a 3-pointer by Dimitrov. Adams pulled the Crusaders with three on a 3-pointer, but the Guins scored five straight to go back in front by eight. Valpo drained two 3-pointers in the final 2:12 to get within four at the break.

The Guins held on to lead 30-26 at the break. YSU shot 40.7 percent in the first half making 11-of-27 attempts while Valpo shot 37 percent (10-of-27)

In the first 20 minutes, Brown had 14 points and six rebounds while Dimitrov and Middlebrooks each had seven points. The Penguins protected the ball well committing only four turnovers.

In the second half, Valpo cut the deficit to 32-30 in the early going, but six straight YSU points forced the Crusaders to play catchup the rest of the night.

Valpo had crept back to 53-49 with just over two minutes to go, but Brown’s putback of Tieara Jones miss put the Guins up six at the 2:02 mark.

On their next two possessions, the Crusaders missed a shot and threw an errant pass out of bounds.

Dimitrov stepped to the line and drained two free throws with 44.3 seconds left to put YSU ahead 57-49.

Valpo answered with a layup by Skyler Gick with 38.7 ticks left, but was forced to foul. With 35.4 seconds remaining Dimitrov split a pair of free throws, but Valpo’s Rashida Ray missed the front end of a one-and-one and Jones corralled the rebound and dished to Middlebrooks who was fouled.

Middlebrooks drained two free throws with 16.3 seconds left pushing the lead to 60-51. Valpo scored four straight points before Dimitrov split another pair of charity tosses with 4.7 seconds for the final margin.

The Penguins wrap up their Indiana road trip on Saturday afternoon when they visit Butler. Tipoff at Hinkle Fieldhouse is set for 2 p.m. The contest can be heard on 570 WKBN.

In what could only be billed as a fair contest between Milwaukee and Youngstown State, the team that would make fewer mistakes would probably win.  Both teams came into Saturday’s game with nine game losing streaks.

In the first half, Milwaukee had a lead as large as 18 points.  Youngstown State carved and fought until that lead was shaved all the way down to  33-28 at intermission.  The Panthers used some good passing and kept finding open people to take shots in building a big first half lead.  Lindsay Laur had 11 points and Angela Rodriguez added 10 for Milwaukee.  YSU got a nice boost from Liz Hornberger who went three-of-three from three point range.  Hornberger fluttered into the game like a moth, but made an impact by half.  Brandi Brown also had 12 points and six rebounds.

In the second half, Youngstown State trimmed the deficit to one at 34-33 when Tieara Jones hit a basket.  Unfortunately for the Penguins, Milwaukee went on an 15-3 run and widened the margin 49-36 with 10:07 to go.  Kenya Middlebrooks hit a three, her first points of the game, at the 7:59 mark to make it 49-42.  Next trip down the court, Milwaukee turned it over and Macey Nortey hit a layup for her first points of the game to make it 49-44.  There were not a lot of people at Beeghly Center, but the ones that showed were loud and into the game.  Nortey would go on to score five points in a row for YSU, but with 5:00 left in the game, but Milwaukee would hold a 56-47 lead.

YSU, losers of 38 of their last 39 Horizon League games, scratched and clawed all they could but always seemed to be trailing by nine. With 2:08 left in the game, Milwaukee held a 62-52 lead.

Brown finished the game for Youngstown State with 22 points and eight rebounds.  Hornbereger finished with nine points, all in the first half, and Nortey contributed seven points (all in the second half).

Milwaukee got 19 from Lindsay Laur and 13 from Rodriguez.  Sami Tucker also scored 11 points and hauled in 11 boards for the Panthers.  The Panthers improved to 4-11, 1-3 in the league.

Brandi Brown talked about the loss for the Penguins.  “We dug ourselves a big hole in the first half .  We can’t do that and expect to fight back.  We know we can win and compete, but we have to get more consistent.”

Coach Boldon echoed the sentiments of Brown.  “Our offense was just miserable today.  We didn’t execute, we didn’t take care of the ball, and we got real tentative in the second half.  We also reverted to taking some crazy shots and passing up the good ones.  I was very frustrated.  To the halfway point in the season, we are about average.  This is a bad day to ask me that question because we were so bad today.  I think that the team is showing signs of improvement, but you can’t rebuild a program and expect to see improvement consistently each game.”

The much-improved Youngstown State Lady Penguins welcomed their longtime geographic rival, the Akron Zips, to town for a finals week matchup.  The game was tied at 55 with just under five minutes to play, but Akron was able to clamp down and improve to 6-4 on the season, as they posted a 70-56 win at Youngstown State.

Akron carried a 31-25 lead into the locker room at the half thanks in part to shooting 44% from the floor.  Rachel Tecca led a balanced Zips attack in the first half with seven points.  Youngstown State got eight first half points from Boki Dimitrov including a couple of threes that kept YSU at a single digit deficit.  The Penguins launched 18 threes in the first half, hitting five.  The Zips also held a 20-14 rebounding advantage at the intermission.

The Penguins cut the Zips lead to 35-33 when Tieara Jones scored inside and was fouled.  Jones scored her tenth point to cut the Akron lead to one point at the 12:49 mark, but but Tecca responded on the Zips next possession to keep the lead at three.  Jones, a product of Rayen High School, again connected with 11:52 left in the game to make the score 41-40 in favor of Akron.  Jones was having one of her best nights as a Penguin.

Sina King gave Akron a 45-40 lead on a layup, but Kenya Middlebrooks hit a three coming back to keep the Penguins close.  Macey Nortey, who seems to hustle her heart out every game, had a steal and drove the court for a layup, and was fouled.  Nortey hit the free throw putting the Penguins in front for the first time in the second half at 46-45.

Middlebrooks was in a zone, hitting threes at will, she had three of them in a six minute span, including one at the 7:15 mark to put the Penguins back in front, 52-51.  Brandi Brown’s presence seemed like enough for Akron to really concentrate on shutting her down, allowing the role players like Middlebrooks, Nortey, and Jones ample chances to score.

Jasmine Mushington stepped up for the Zips and hit a couple of big baskets to give Akron back the lead at 59-55 with 3:54 left in the game.  Akron’s 9-1 run put the Penguins into fouling mode with 1:24 left in the game.  The Zips coasted home holding the Penguins to just one point over the final four and a half minutes.

Akron was paced by Tecca’s 19 points and 11 boards.  Youngstown State got 15 from Jones and 14 from Middlebrooks.  The Penguins finished 9-39 from three-point land.  With the loss, YSU fell to 2-7 and will not play at home again in 2010.

After the game, Coach Boldon spoke about his team’s collapse down the stretch.  “We look at film and see the things we do well, and the things we don’t do so well, and we are doing more things not so well right now.”

Tieara Jones talked about a piece of the machine giving way each possession.  “We play good defense, but if four people are on the same page and one breaks down, it can hurt the whole team and we had some of that tonight.  It wasn’t any one person in particular, just one of the four on the court would break down and it cost us.”

With the Holiday Season in the air on the Eve of Thanksgiving, Youngstown State’s Lady Penguins were scraping for reasons to be thankful.  The team had not won a game in its last 34 attempts, or 627 days,  although seem much improved over last season.  Drought Be Gone! The Lady Penguins used 87.5% free throw shooting and some hustle from the role players to get by Bucknell.

Bucknell lost 71-45 the last time these two teams met in 1992.  The margin would not be quite as big but was meaningful in so many ways.  It marked Bob Boldon‘s first victory as new coach.  It broke the drought of 34 losses in a row.  Perhaps the most important thing the win did was give a group of scrappy girls who never quit an inkling of confidence to build on.

In a statistically even first half, the Penguins looked better on offense than they had Saturday against IPFW, yet trailed 30-27. Brandi Brown was doing her best to end the drought with six boards and seven points at intermission.  Newcomer Heidi Schlegel also had seven for the Penguins at the break.  Bucknell was paced by Joyce Novacek‘s nine points and five rebounds.

Monica Touvelle hit a three-pointer at the 15:29 mark of the second half to give YSU a five point lead at 39-34.  Next trip down the floor, Kenya Middlebrooks drilled a three, and at the 13:52 mark, the Penguins were in front by the score of 42-38.  YSU held the lead until the 11:20 mark when Cosima Higham drove the lane to put the Bison up by a point, 45-44.

Liz Hornberger his a three from the corner to give the Penguins back the lead at 49-47 with 10:23 to go.  Hornberger hit her second three of the half to put YSU back on top 52-50.  Middlebrooks extended the lead with her ninth point of the night to extend the lead to 54-50 with 7:06 left in the game, and hold the phones, the chilled champagne might get uncorked in Youngstown.

With 5:36 left, Schlegel kept the Penguins safely ahead with her drive to the hoop that made it 57-53.  YSU was getting some bounces, finally, and upped their lead to 60-53 on a pair of Macey Nortey free throws as the Penguins were 15-18 from the line to this point.

With 1:54 left in the game, Youngstown State enjoyed a 64-55 lead and was just looking to run the clock out.  Free throw shooting was great all night and Schlegel hit a pair to move the lead to 66-55 with just over a minute left in the game.  Nortey stepped up and followed suit with a pair to make it 68-55.  The Penguins went 21-24 from the line to get the win and improve to 1-3 on the season.

After the game, Coach Boldon was complimentary and happy for the team. “They deserved to win tonight because of how hard they worked at practice this week.  I am a believer that hard work at practice should translate over to wins on game day, and they earned this starting two days ago.  I am very happy for the players and they will celebrate this victory, hopefully not too much, because we have practice at nine in the morning.”

Brandi Brown, who finished the game with 23 points and 11 rebounds was happy to get a win.  “It feels amazing.  It’s a humongous reward for how hard we have been working.  When everybody plays their role and listens to Coach Boldon, we can win.“

I’ll throw the prediction out there first. The YSU Lady Penguins are going to win 10 games this season.  Someone unfamiliar with the programs recent tailspin would scoff at a ten win season.  Those who haven’t seen this program celebrate a victory since 2008 understand that a few wins are steps in the right direction.

On a recent visit to a practice, I wondered how much the returning players remembered from last season.  New Coach, Bob Boldon, blew his whistle for a quick water break.  As the players approached the water dispenser, they went a little out of the way to say hi to me. Big deal?  To me, it was a nice gesture, but it proved that if they can remember a sports blogger from last season that they also retained a few memories to fuel and inspire a hard work ethic going into 2010.

Gone are the two boys who had to practice with the team so there would be enough bodies for a five-on-five drill.  Gone is Cindy Martin. Gone is the attitude that it just can’t be done.

Enter a new coach, a new attitude, a couple of new recruits, and a high-tech three-point shooting machine.  Enter girls who were hurt or had transfer issues.  Enter the bus while there is room, because it will be full in a few years.

Rachel Manuel and Kaitlyn March are the two players who graduated.  The returning women from last year are Macey Nortey, Kenya Middlebrooks, Boki Dimitrov, Makala Gasparek, Maryum Jenkins, and Brandi Brown.  The new faces are Shea Johnson, Kaitlin Rohrs, and Melissa Thompson who missed last year with injuries, and Youngstown native Tieara Jones sat out while meeting academic requirements as a transfer.  There are also three incoming freshmen – Liz Hornberger, Heidi Schlegel, and Boardman High graduate Monica Touvelle.

Coach Boldon is a good choice.  Talking to him is like talking to someone you have known for a couple of years.  After a couple of conversations with him, I applaud Ron Strollo on a solid selection to replace Martin.  Boldon is high on the three-point shot.  Expect every girl on the roster to be able to chuck up a long ball at any time.  There is a lot of motion in Boldon’s Playbook.  This is going to be a fun offense to watch once all of the pieces are in place and the players gain confidence in the system.

Can this team win?  “We have to change our culture. We have to develop and get better. Nobody wants to win more than the team wants to win. Nobody wants to win more than I want to win”, exclaimed Boldon.

Brandi Brown has been named to the Preseason Horizon League Second Team.  Coming off of a freshman season rarely seen at any college, Brown was the only player in the conference to average a double-double.  She was robbed of the Horizon League Newcomer of The Year award last season, and handed the runner-up ribbon in a statistical oversight.  I’m still not sure if all of the voters were from Detroit or if the award is given to a freshman on one of the best teams.  Either way, Brown will vindicate my sentiments with another big year.

Expect a higher-quality and more refined team to win at least ten games this season.

After a 57-38 loss to Wright State on Thursday, Youngstown State Coach Cindy Martin and her staff (pictured), who I still feel will prove worthy in the end, scraped for positives.  “Wright State executed their gameplan tonight.  I am proud of the effort we had on defense, but we turned the ball over too many times and missed layups, I think we beat ourselves a little”, declared Coach Martin after the loss.

Turnovers plagued Martin’s Penguins, but the points off of those turnovers killed any chance YSU had to end their season-long 26 game skid. 

Wright State held a 18-10 lead with 9:07 left in the first half.  The Raiders were taking better shots than the Penguins in the early going.  The higher percentage shots were mainly layups and short jumpers. Youngstown State, conversely, was unsuccessful in getting the ball to Brandi Brown in the post.

The Raiders upped their margin to ten points at 28-18 with 3:47 left in the first half.  Macey Nortey hit a nice baseline jumper to cut into the Raider lead.  However, the Penguins committed 13 first-half turnovers. Off of those miscues, Wright State held a 16-0 advantage in points off of turnovers.

With 10:39 left in the game, Kenya Middlebrooks hit a three which cut the Wright State lead to 14, at 44-30.  Both teams struggled on offense over the next six minutes.  With 4:21 remaining, YSU trailed 49-33.

Wright State, only dressing seven players, lost 6’1″ Molly Fox with just over four minutes left in the game. Boki Dimitrov hit a three to make it 52-36.  LaShawna Thomas picked up the slack for Wright State, scoring three consecutive baskets and keeping the margin comfortably in the double-digits for the Raiders.

Youngstown State could only muster one point off of 14 Wright State turnovers.  Wright State, on the other hand, finished with 21 points off of 19 YSU errors, the difference in the game.

Wright State 57, YSU 38, for a final as the Penguins dropped to 0-26 and just cant seem to knock the monkey off of their backs.

Saturday will be the last attempt at home as Youngstown State welcomes Detroit, tipoff for that contest is set for 4:35, or a half-hour after the men’s game in the Senior Day doubleheader.

Youngstown State’s Lady Penguins returned home for a matinee against Cleveland State.  For the Penguins, it was another chance at ‘the end’ of the streak, aka, the losing streak that has plagued the Penguins since 2009.  YSU would have to wait until Thursday for another shot as Cleveland State overwhelmed the Lady Penguins by posting a 68-38 win.

Saturday also served as Youngstown State Alumni Day.  Former Lady Penguin standouts from the past were honored at halftime.  Current Penguin, Boki Dimitrov, commented on the festivities. “It’s really nice to be around all of the ladies who have played here. I liked meeting them and am happy they came out today.”

Youngstown State hung with the Vikings in the early going as the score was tied at 8-8 with eight minutes elapsed in the first half. However, Cleveland State applied daunting full-court pressure giving the Penguins fits to even get into their half-court offense.

At the half, the Vikings (13-12, 8-6 HL) were comfortably ahead at 33-17.  Angel Roque provided a spark off of the bench for the Vikings by connecting on three of four first half three-point shots.  The Lady Penguins were paced by Kenya Middlebrooks and Brandi Brown who combined for 13 points and 12 rebounds.  Youngstown State only shot 24% from the field in the half.

With 15:26 left in the game, Cleveland State expanded their lead to 25 points, holding a 44-19 lead.  Brandi Brown, Youngstown State’s most consistent player all season, posted her twelfth double-double when she yanked down her tenth rebound with 14:21 left.  Brown finished the game with 16 points and 11 rebounds.

The Vikings had nine players with anywhere from 6-11 points showing a very well-balanced attack.  Angel Roque took top scoring honors with 11 points, all in the first half.  Her sister, Jessica Roque finished with seven points and seven rebounds.

Kenya Middlebrooks had a nice game for Youngstown State finishing with 11 points and eight rebounds. Only four of the eight Penguins who dressed scored a point.

Cleveland State must have felt like they were in a contest to see how many points they could win by. The Vikings hoisted three-pointers in five consecutive trips up the floor.  At least they stopped pressing with a 63-33 lead and 2:56 left in the game.  Hopefully, Coach Martin etches some mental notes about things like this so when she has a bench and options, she can return the favor of bullying a team.

After the game, Martin commented on the constant threes and pressure in the second half.  “I am not mad at all. It’s a part of the game for their coaches to have players play their game, which is pretty much layups and threes. If I were in that situation, I would want my team to work hard and try to improve, I don’t believe there was any intent to do anything outside of their normal gameplan.”

Youngstown State welcomes Wright State to Beeghly Center on Thursday as the first game of a doubleheader to be followed by the men.

It would be unfair to use every old adage in the book to describe how close the YSU Women were to their first victory.  Unfortunately for the Lady Penguins, the last couple of possessions were catastrophic and Loyola (11-10, 5-5) escaped Youngstown with a 63-59 triumph in a competitive game that went down to the wire.

Loyola, sky-high, after upsetting nationally ranked Green Bay in their last game ran into a buzzsaw they did not expect, Youngstown State.  The Lady Penguins have had a rough go of it this season battling injuries and carrying the unfortunate banner as the only Division-I program without a win.  However, YSU looked like anything but a winless and shorthanded team as they gave Loyola everything they could handle.

The YSU Penguins had an 11-10 lead with 11:04 to play in the first half.  Kenya Middlebrooks got fouled after she picked the pocket of Loyola’s Shannon Finnegan.  The resulting bucket was a nice power move by Brandi Brown.  At the 7:17 mark, the Lady Penguins found themselves down 16-15 when Finnegan converted a fastbreak.

Macey Nortey connected from just inside the arc to cut the Ramblers lead to 33-28 at the half.  The Penguins had fallen behind by ten, but rallied before the intermission buzzard.  Brown, Rachael Manuel and Boki Dimitrov combined to score 21 of YSU’s 28 points.  For Loyola, Monica Albano threw in ten first-half points.  YSU shot 70% from the free throw line in the half compared to Loyola’s 20%, yet Loyola held the lead.

Youngstown State was playing like a hungry team.  With 13:58 left in the game, the Loyola lead which was as high as seven in the second half was trimmed to just two.  Manuel was having perhaps her best all-around game.  Her pair of free throws tied the contest at 42.

Over the next five minutes, Loyola took an eight point lead and YSU came back to trail only by two at 53-51 with 6:58 left in the game.  Nortey had a game-tying bucket at the 6:36 mark and YSU was striving for that elusive first victory.  Elyse Vanbogaert hit a couple of shots to give Loyola some breathing space with 4:15 left in the game giving her Ramblers a 59-56 advantage.

YSU tied the game at 59 with 1:40 left in the game when Brandi Brown scored underneath.  With 31 seconds left, Vanbogaert connected for her game-high 18th points off of an offensive rebound putting Loyola back on top, 61-59.  After a YSU timeout, the Penguins inbounded but could not get off a good shot.  YSU was held scoreless over the last 2:32 of the game. 

Middlebrooks fouled with 5.5 seconds left in the game to put Maggie McCloskey on the line for a one-and-one.  She hit both shots to make it a two-possession lead for the Ramblers.

Rachael Manuel (pictured) finished the game with a double-double for the Penguins.  The Senior from Illinois ended the game with twelve points and ten rebounds in her best all-around effort of the season.  “The game went well tonight, I thought the flow on our team felt good.  Despite the loss, it was a good situation to be in and we will use it as a building block for our game on Saturday [vs UIC]”.  Brandi Brown also picked up another double-double for Youngstown State.

After the game, Coach Martin showered her team with praise.   “This is much easier to deal with than being blown out by 30.  Anytime you can execute in a tight game when you have not been in a tight game all year shows that the ladies had poise and confidence and they executed to a tee.  I am extremely proud that they kept their composure.”  Kudos to the entire staff to prepare an 0-20 team to come out and fight the way they did.

Butler rolled into Youngstown having handled the Lady Penguins the last seven times they had met.  Youngstown State also entered the contest as the only team in Division-I without a victory this season.  The odds were against Youngstown State coming out ahead, but when a struggling team compiles 25 turnovers, the end result can seldom be positive.  All of these factors weighed in as the Bulldogs handled the Penguins, 74-48, at Beeghly Center on Saturday.  Youngstown State has to be looking to the sky for answers (pictured, above).

With 9:37 left in the first half, Butler opened up a 14-10 lead. As the pattern of late has reflected, YSU has played respectably in the first half over their last few games. The only two Penguins to score in the first ten minutes were Brandi Brown and Kenya Middlebrooks.

Rachael Manuel hit a running hook from short distance to cut the lead to 18-12. With 2:28 left in the opening half, Butler’s Melanie Thornton took an errant pass the length of the floor and layed it in to give her team a 22-14 lead. It was the Penguins 16th turnover of the first half.

Butler would tack on four more points to hold a 28-14 lead at the half. Terra Burns headed the Butler attack with eight points. YSU got eight points and six rebounds from Brandi Brown. Neither team connected on a three-point shot in the first half. YSU also had 17 first half turnovers, too many to stay in the game.

Melanie Thornton, who led all scorers with 19 in the game, took matters over in the second half. Thornton only had four points at halftime but scored nine of Butler’s first 19 points in the second half. With 11:49 left in the game, Butler held a 47-28 lead.

With 7:47 left in the contest, the Bulldogs were well in control holding a 58-34 advantage. The situation that seemed to pose the biggest problems to YSU’s defense was the passing. More than half of Butler’s points were layups, many uncontested, off of strong passes from beyond the foul line.

Macey Nortey fouled out with 4:17 left in the game, leaving just one sub on the Penguins bench. Butler was ahead 68-36 and well on their way to improving to 10-6 on the season (3-2 Horizon League).

Maryum Jenkins was the second Penguin to foul out with just under a minute left in the game. There was no Penguins bench to finish the game with.

To her credit, Cindy Martin was still coaching, even down by more than 30 points. The players were not quitting and still hustling, they were just outmatched on this particular Saturday.  “They [the players] are the ones who have to deal with the embarrassment of the record.  They are classy and they are ladies both on and off of the floor and I have alot of respect for them.”

Brandi Brown colected a double-double, finishing with 12 points and 12 rebounds.  It was the seventh double-double of the year for Brown.  Martin knows that other teams realize Brown is now the go-to Penguin.  “Valpo doubled Brandi Brown.  Teams are trying to create gameplans to stop her because Brandi is among the conference leaders in rebounding and scoring.  We have to remember that she is just a Freshman and we have three-and-a-half more years to enjoy watching her.”

The Lady Penguins take to the road with stops in Cleveland, Detroit and Wright State starting next Saturday.

Youngstown State University came into their Horizon League matchup with Valparaiso as the only Division-I program without a victory.  Boki Dimitrov, one of the Lady Penguins leading scorers, was not dressed leaving the full active roster at seven.  For the first 17 minutes, YSU looked really good.  The rest of the night belonged to Valparaiso as the Crusaders shot an NBA-like 50% from three and handed YSU their 16th loss, 66-41.

YSU jumped out to a 14-9 lead with 11:27 left in the first half.  The combination of a good half-court defense accented with strong rebounding and sloppy Valpo passing were contributing factors to the early Penguins success. 

With 6:02 left in the opening frame, YSU held a commanding 22-11 lead until Betsy Adams knocked down a couple of threes for Valpo.  Rachael Manuel responded with her eighth point of the opening half and the Penguins were up 24-17 with 3:26 left until intermission.

At the half, YSU held a 26-22 lead.  Adams was hot for Valparaiso knocking down a pair of three-pointers and a two in the last 3:00 of the half.  She led all scorers with 11 points at the half.  YSU was paced by Manuel with eight.  Both teams combined for 20 turnovers and looked sloppy.  The Lady Penguins just looked less sloppy with seven first half turnovers.

Valparaiso opened the second half with a 12-0 run and jumped out to a 34-26 lead with 16:31 left in the game.  Betsy Adams was tearing the Penguins up with three-point bombs on 5-8 shooting from long distance and had 25 points in the game.

With 7:54 left in the game, Valpo had a 49-35 lead and seemed to have gained the upper hand in the rebounding wars on both sides of the court.  The lead was later increased to 60-37 with 3:47 left in the game and eventually when the final horn sounded, YSU was denied a victory falling 66-41.  The Crusaders outscored the Penguins, 44-15, in the second half.

After the game, a disappointed Coach Martin talked addressed the collapse.  “We told the ladies at halftime to play like they were down 20 and we just went a long time that we didn’t score.  It is the most disappointed I have been all season.  We had another person [Boki Dimitrov] get hurt in our last game.  I am not disappointed in our hustle, we always dive after loose balls.  We are a little banged up right now but I thought that the girls had 40 minutes in them.”

The Penguins (0-16, 0-5) got 15 points from Kenya Middlebrooks, who also shared rebounding honors with Brandi Brown with eight apiece.  Butler will make a stop in Youngstown to face the Lady Penguins Saturday, tipoff is set for 2:00.