Penguins can't outscore Ohio
YOUNGSTOWN -- Despite a career-high scoring performance by senior Jen Perugini, the Youngstown State women's basketball team lost for the first time this season, 85-79, to Ohio University Tuesday at Beeghly Center.
Perugini, a 6-foot-2 senior forward, scored 26 points, surpassing her old career best of 24 set against Wright State in February 2003.
She also had 17 rebounds, giving her 33 in two games this season for the Penguins (1-1).
"Jen, in years past, would not have grabbed those rebounds and held onto them like she did tonight," said coach Tisha Hill. "She really wanted the ball and made some good outlet passes."
Too many errors
Against Ohio's (2-0) full-court game, the Penguins committed 26 turnovers, a statistic Hill noticed. Those mistakes resulted in 23 points for the Bobcats in transition.
"[The Penguins] are trying to do the things we [the coaching staff] have asked of them," said Hill. "We had a good team effort tonight, but we just had some lapses we need to take care of.
"We knew coming in we would have to eliminate turnovers," she continued. "We didn't do that quite as much as we needed to. Now, we just have to go back to the drawing board and get some things figured out."
Barb Favianova added 17 points for the Penguins and she had four assists. No other starter, though, scored more than seven points. Lauren Branson had four assists.
"We have to look at some things we could have done offensively," said Hill. "We have got to get a little bit more out of some people."
Top Bobcats
Simone Redd, who was a prep standout at Regina High, scored 18 points off the bench for Ohio. She also had seven rebounds.
Elizabeth Brown scored 12 points for the Bobcats, while Lauren Revesv and Lindsay Wight added 11 apiece, and Kristian Kirkpatrick scored 10. Erin Isbell had 10 rebounds for Ohio, which held a 61-53 edge on the boards. That advantage, plus 20 steals, were enough to overcome 21 Ohio turnovers and 33 percent shooting (31-for-93).
The Bobcats had 30 offensive rebounds, which results in 28 second-chance points.
Youngstown State led for most of the first half, its largest advantage being five points (17-12) on a Kristy Gaudiose layup with 12 minutes, 57 seconds remaining. After the seventh tie of the game (33-33), Ohio went on a 10-4 run for its largest lead, 43-37, before the Penguins closed to 43-41 at the intermission.
The final deadlock of the game (46-46) occurred at the 18:06 mark of the second half on a 3-point goal by Cathy Hanek. The Bobcats scored the next eight points, which Brown started with a 3-pointer and ended with a layup. The Penguins got back to within two, 54-52, on Aliyah Sabree's layup with 13:41 remaining, but Ohio steadily pulled away, and Quintana Ward's 3-pointer with 7:28 to go gave the Bobcats their largest lead, 72-60.