YSU women drop thriller to Butler

The Penguins couldn’t get off a final shot in the 61-60 defeat.

By PETE MOLLICA

VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF

YOUNGSTOWN — The Youngstown State women’s basketball team let one get away from them Thursday night in a key Horizon League game at Beeghly Center.

The Penguins trailed 61-60 with 24 seconds remaining and called a time out to set up a final shot. However, the Penguins never got the shot off and the Bulldogs walked away with the victory.

YSU (12-14, 7-8 Horizon League) once again had a defensive letdown at the end of the contest that allowed Butler (18-9, 8-8) to regain the lead late in the game.

“I take full responsibility for what happened at the end,” YSU head coach Tisha Hill said. “I obviously didn’t get across to them what we needed to do.

“We were trying to set up a double screen for Velissa [Vaughn], who has been our main threat, but she bobbled the pass and although she didn’t lose the ball we were never able to get off the shot,” Hill said.

“Still our defense let us down at the end and allowed them to get a couple of easy layups that really hurt our chances,” Hill said. “That and the 20 turnovers and our missed free throws the game might not have even been close.”

Vaughn once again led the Penguins with a game-high 21 points, although she made just 6-of-18 attempts from the field. But she was 7-of-9 from the foul line.

Senior Heather Karner also made double figures with 13 points.

The loss hurts the Penguins’ hopes to get into the league’s top four teams and possibly host a first-round Horizon League tournament game.

The loss, coupled with Valparaiso’s upset at Cleveland State, dropped the Penguins into seventh place in the standings. They were fifth, a game out of fourth going into the game.

The contest was close throughout with the score being tied nine times and there were eight lead changes.

Each team, at one time, held a seven-point advantage, but nobody really held the lead for very long.

Butler opened with a 6-2 advantage, but the Penguins scored six straight points and regained the lead.

They then pulled out to a 15-8 margin on Vaughn’s 3-point shot, but Butler came right back and whittled away at the lead, regaining it 23-22 on a jump shot by Lade Akande with 4:32 remaining.

The lead changed hands three more times in the half before YSU went up 33-30 at halftime on a basket by Nikita LeFleur.

The Penguins started very poorly in the second half as they opened with seven turnovers and seven missed shots, while scoring just five points over the first nine minutes to fall behind 45-38.

They came right back and scored the next nine points to go back on top 47-45 on a basket by Karner with 8:37 remaining.

Again, the Bulldogs pulled ahead 53-47, but the Penguins answered to tie the game on a Karner 3-pointer 53-53 with 5:01 left.

The game was tied at 55-55 when Butler’s Tara Miller drove for an easy layup. After Vaughn tied the game again, Susan Lester scored all alone underneath for a 59-57 edge.

Ashley Pendleton made one of two free throws with 1:34 remaining, but Miller hit a pair of charity shots for a 61-58 lead with 1:07 remaining.

Vaughn scored YSU’s final two points from the foul line with 52.9 seconds left. After Akande missed a jumper with 25 seconds remaining, the Penguins called time out.

They got the ball into Vaughn, who bobbled it and then threw off to Karner, whose pass underneath was picked off by Akande with four seconds remaining and she held onto the ball as the buzzer went off.

The Penguins play their final home game of the season on Saturday night when they entertain Valparaiso in a 4:35 p.m. tip off at Beeghly Center.

mollica@vindy.com