Friday, February 16, 2007
Youngstown State stumbled down the stretch in a 74-62 loss.
By PETE MOLLICA
VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF
YOUNGSTOWN -- Youngstown State women's basketball coach Tisha Hill hoped Wisconsin-Green Bay wouldn't bring its best game to Beeghly Center Thursday night.
Hill got her wish, although the Phoenix still brought enough to walk away with a 74-62 victory.
The Penguins (7-16, 5-7 Horizon League) hung with the talented Phoenix (20-3, 11-0), well into the second half, but once their shots started missing Green Bay pulled away to record its 17th straight victory.
"We played well and executed our game plan, but we had a few lapses on defense and good teams like Green Bay take advantage of those mistakes," Hill said.
"In the first half our 3-point shots were going in, but they just didn't fall in the second half," Hill said.
The Penguins hit 8-of-24 3-point attempts, but were just 1-of-10 in the second half. They still shot 40 percent from the field for the game.
Karner leads in scoring
Junior Heather Karner came off the bench to lead the Penguins, scoring 17 points, while three others also hit double figures -- Velissa Vaughn with 13, Monique Godfrey with 12 and Jessica Schloemp with 11.
Green Bay senior Nicole Soulis led all scorers with 23 points, including 10-of-12 at the free throw line. The Phoenix, which is ranked among the best free throw shooting teams in the country, connected on 17-of-19 for the night.
The Penguins also shot well from the charity stripe, hitting 12-of-14, but they were outrebounded 35-27 and outscored 30-8 in the paint.
The Penguins will take on UW-Milwaukee on Saturday and Hill is expecting better things from her team.
"We played well tonight, but I want to play well on Saturday and win," she said.
Lessons learned
Karner, who was the team's leading scorer early in the season but went into a scoring slump and lost her starting job, said the Penguins learned a lot in the loss.
"We now realize that we can play with anybody in this league as long as we continue to work hard in practice," Karner said.
Hill said, "We've got to rebound for Milwaukee. They are another good team and will be a good test for us. It's at the end of the season and this team is getting hungrier for wins."
The Penguins battled with the Phoenix for most of the first half. The score was tied four times and the lead changed hands six times in the first 12 minutes.
YSU's biggest lead was five points (13-8) with 15:18 left in the half and its last lead was 25-24 with 9:01 remaining.
Green Bay surge
Green Bay took the lead for good (26-25) on a basket by Natalie Berglin, Soulis followed with four straight free throws and Kayla Groh added two more to put the Phoenix up 32-25 with just more than five minutes left before the break.
A 3-point shot by Karner and a free throw by Ta-myra Davis cut the lead to 32-29, but the Phoenix scored nine unanswered points to lead 41-29 and took a 43-34 lead at the intermission.
The Penguins were still in the game (48-44) with 13:36 remaining after back-to-back baskets by Schloemp and Nikita LaFleur, but Green Bay scored 14 of the next 16 points and was in command, 61-46.
Green Bay's biggest lead came 64-47 with 6:46 remaining, but Karner scored seven of the Penguins' next 11 points to pull them to 69-58. They never got closer.
Saturday's contest with UW-Milwaukee will tip-off at 2:05 p.m. as the first game of a doubleheader. The YSU men will play Eastern Kentucky at 4:30 p.m. in the second game.
mollica@vindy.com