MID-CONTINENT CONFERENCE YSU makes quick exit from tourney

The Penguins were out of the game early against Oral Roberts in the opening-round game.
By PETE MOLLICA
VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF
FORT WAYNE, Ind. -- The Youngstown State women's basketball team made its quickest exit from the Mid-Continent Conference tournament since 1993.
The Penguins lost to Oral Roberts for the third time this season in the opening round of the tournament, 71-52, Saturday, in a game they were never in after the first 11 minutes.
YSU finished the season with a 10-18 record, the third-worst season in the 18 years Ed DiGregorio has been coach; and it was the first time in the last seven seasons the Penguins didn't finish with a winning record.
No leader: "I think that our season ended back in December when Brianne [Kenneally] injured her knee," said DiGregorio. "When she went out, nobody ever really stepped up to become a leader on this team. Alyson [Vogrin] tried, but nobody really did."
Vogrin, a senior from Boardman, averaged over 13 points per game and she had a team-high 15 Saturday. Freshman Devin Novak was the only other player in double figures, scoring 11 points in the last 14 minutes of the game.
Oral Roberts (18-10), the tournament's No. 2, advanced to the semifinal round Monday against Chicago State, which defeated Western Illinois 62-55.
Ragan tough: Reserve Shayne McKenzie led the Golden Eagles with 18 points, while Mid-Con Player of the Year, Krista Ragan, added 15 points and, as DiGregorio said, "she did so many other things so well that she really killed us.
"Even when she didn't have the ball she gave us trouble and when we doubled her she just passed off to the open player for an easy basket," added DiGregorio.
"We made an All-American out of McKenzie," he said. "She hadn't scored anywhere near that total all season long."
It was the trapping defense of Oral Roberts that did in the Penguins.
To trap defense: The score was deadlocked at 14 with 11 minutes, 50 seconds remaining in the first half, when the Eagles went to their 2-1-2 trapping defense.
The Penguins have five consecutive turnovers, leading to an 18-3 run that put Oral Roberts ahead 32-17.
"That 2-1-2 press did us in again," said Vogrin. "We worked against it all week long and we knew it was coming.
"It has been a frustrating season," she added. "We seem like we can hang with any team in this conference and then something always seems to happen and we get ourselves into a big hole we can't get out of."
DeGregorio said he told the underclassmen after the game some things he has never had to say in his career.
Hard words: "They better re-evaluating themselves now that the season is over, because if they don't want to come back and work to get better then they had better find something else to do with their time," DiGregorio said.
"Brianne Kenneally was a gym rat, she was in there all the time working on something," he said. "I know that Krista Ragan is a gym rat also. That's what it takes to make yourself a better player, and we don't have too many gym rats on this team."
The Penguins trailed 38-26 at halftime. Oral Roberts opened the second half with an 8-0 run, then Ragan and McKenzie combined for the next 12 Eagles' points as they took a commanding 54-32 advantage.
YSU made one last run, a 9-2 rally, that brought it back to 62-45, but the Eagles scored eight straight points to put the game away.
"I've never had a season like this one," said DiGregorio, "and I certainly don't want to have another one like it."