Penguin women win big

Youngstown State women’s basketball coach Tisha Hill has been waiting patiently for her basketball team to meet her expectations of it since the beginning of the season.

Friday night she finally got to see what her team is capable of and she liked it a lot.

Since practice began in October Hill has seen her team as a contender in the Horizon League this year.

She even want so far as to say “bring them on right now” as the Penguins were getting set to open the season.

But things didn’t go as expected and the Penguins opened up with three straight losses.

They started to turn things around by winning four straight games.

They weren’t dominate wins, in fact they had to pull a couple out in the closing seconds, but they were wins.

But the excitement suddenly dropped with three more straight losses, two of them were against top Division I opponents in Cincinnati and Ohio State and both on the road, but at that point the Penguins were not looking very impressive.

Friday night at Akron, a good, but not a great team, the Penguins finally put it all together.

Other than the first four minutes they shot the ball well, they rebounded unbelievably and put together a full 40 minutes of basketball.

The 74-56 win really impressed Hill, who was more happy about the Penguins breaking out of the 50-point status they had been in for the last three games.

“I’m just so happy we scored more than 50 points,” Hill said.

Scott has career
game against Zips

One of the big reasons for the turnaround was the play of junior transfer Tiara Scott, who had an outstanding game with 25 points and 21 rebounds, for her first career double-double as a Penguin.

Scott came to the Penguins this year after transferring from Western Nebraska Community College.

By the way, in case you’re interested, the 21 rebounds is no where near a school record, in fact is doesn’t even rank in the school’s top five.

Wanda Grant holds the record with 30 rebounds in a game in 1980 and she also had games with 25, 24 and 23.

Jen Perugini in 2001 was the last Penguin to record 20 or more rebounds when she had 23 against Akron.

Scott had plenty of help Friday as senior Heather Karner fired in 24 points, including 17 in the first half as the Penguins took control.

Now the real test begins for the women, who will begin Horizon League play Jan. 3 when they entertain Illinois-Chicago at Beeghly Center in a 5:15 p.m. tip off.

The YSU men will host the Flames in the nightcap at 7:35.

Men not playing
very well at all

Speaking of the men’s team, Friday’s effort against Akron was not much to talk about.

The Penguins did what they couldn’t afford to do against the Zips, falling way behind early in the contest.

YSU has really never played well early in any contest this year, except maybe against their two toughest opponents, UCLA and Notre Dame.

The Penguins made a run at the Zips in the second half, but once the game turned into a foul shooting contest Akron slowly pulled away.

The Penguins have talent, a lot of it is pretty young, and coach Jerry Slocum still expects to have his team competing for the Horizon League title this year.

Akron’s in-game promotions are about as impressive as we’ve seen this season.

Their contests are just as boring as anyone else’s, but they offer a whole lot to the participants.

One kid won a round-trip airfare for making a couple of 3-point shots, while another walked away with a $100 gift certificate. Almost all their prizes were something someone would actually want.

XPete Mollica covers YSU athletics for The Vindicator. Write to him at mollica@vindy.com.