YSU women's second half rally falls short against Detroit, 69-62

YSU dug itself a big hole in the first half which it couldn't overcome.
DETROIT, Mich. -- The Youngstown State women's basketball team rallied in the second half, but fell short, 69-62, to Detroit Saturday afternoon at Calihan Hall.
The Penguins, who fell behind 29-9 in the first 13 minutes and trailed 37-24 at halftime, outscored the Titans 38-32 in the second half, but it wasn't enough to overcome the big early deficit.
YSU (5-12, 1-6 Horizon League) has lost six of its last seven games, all in the conference. Detroit improved to 8-10, 5-2.
Early shooting problems
Shooting problems again plagued the Penguins as they made just three of their first 11 shots from the field and also committed 14 first half turnovers, finishing with 21 for the game.
Sophomore Jessica Schloemp came up with her second straight strong effort as she paced the Penguins with 18 points and eight rebounds.
Two other Penguins finished in double figures, senior Ashlee Russo with 13 and junior Kristy Gaudiose with 10.
The big gun for the Titans was Katie Solner, who had a career-high 25 points, including 18 in the first half, while Lindsey Pasquinzo added 15 and Catie Goddard pulled down a game-high 12 rebounds as the Titans held the rebounding edge, 35-33.
YSU was red-hot from the field in the second half making 13 of 20 attempts for 65 percent, and finished shooting 54.8 percent for the game.
The Penguins didn't help themselves at the free throw line where they made just 13 of 24 attempts.
While the Penguins couldn't find the range early and committed too many turnovers, the Titans had no trouble scoring from all over the court.
Titans jumped out early
Detroit jumped out to an 8-2 lead and increased that to 21-4 as Solner had 11 of the points in the run.
The Titans first pulled to a 20-point margin (29-9) with 7:43 remaining in the half and their biggest lead was 21 points several times, the last with 5:14 to go, 35-14.
The Penguins made a brief comeback, outscoring the Titans 10-2 over the final five minutes to cut the margin to 37-24 at the intermission.
YSU cut the lead to 10 points (40-30) over the first three minutes of the second half, but three straight turnovers by the Penguins enabled Detroit to pull back to a 48-32 lead at the 14:33 mark.
YSU closes gap
The Penguins then went on a 16-3 run, sparked by Schloemp, who had seven points in the run, to pull to within three points, 51-48, with 6:56 remaining.
Detroit pulled back to a 59-52 lead with 2:49 left and the Penguins never got any closer than five points the rest of the way.
YSU will continue on the road Thursday when it travels to meet Loyola University in Chicago. Tip-off is set for 5:45 p.m. The Penguins are 2-8 away from home this season.