YSU women continue to skid as Loyola pulls away to win

By Pete Mollica

YOUNGSTOWN — The Youngstown State women’s basketball team now has made one complete tour of opponents in the Horizon League, and the Penguins are still winless.

Saturday afternoon, in the battle to escape last place in the conference, the Penguins collapsed in the final 10 minutes and suffered a 56-42 loss to Loyola of Chicago at Beeghly Center.

The Penguins (2-18, 0-9) were still within three points of the Ramblers (6-13, 1-8) with 10:50 remaining, 27-24, but were outscored 20-6 over the next five minutes to fall behind 47-30.

The loss was the 10th straight for YSU, and its 15th in the last 16 games.

Loyola snapped a 10-game losing streak and won for the first time in the conference.

“I really thought we were ready tonight,” said YSU coach Cindy Martin. “Once again we got a lot of good looks at the basket, but nothing would fall.

“It’s kind of hard to teach shooting over a short period of time,” she added. “We did a good job of driving to the basket and drawing fouls, but we didn’t shoot well from the line.”

The Penguins were just 10-of-23 at the line while the Ramblers made 7-for-8.

Seniors Tiara Scott and Nikita LaFleur led the way for the Penguins. Scott had a team-high 11 points, while LaFleur scored 10 and had another double-double with 15 rebounds.

The Penguins out-rebounded Loyola, 39-33. YSU also had 17 turnovers and just eight assists, compared to 16 assists and 11 turnovers by the Ramblers. The Penguins also only took one 3-point shot the entire game, and missed it, while the Ramblers were 7-for 18 from long range.

Martin doesn’t think her team is getting frustrated over the losses.

“I’m frustrated and it all starts with me,” she said. “We made a lot of changes on these ladies over the course of the year and I’m still very proud of how hard they continue to work every day in practice.

“Now we start the second half of the league and we have nine more shots,” she said. “We’ve got to start putting a full 40 minutes together out there.

Loyola finished with four players in double figures led by Keisha Collins with 13 points.

The Penguins made their first two shots of the game for a 4-0 lead, and despite missing their next six sin a row, they managed to hold an 8-5 lead with just over 13 minutes left in the first half.

They then went on another three-minute cold spell and allowed Loyola to take its first lead of the contest, 9-8, on a basket by Jessica Hylton with 12:09 remaining. The Ramblers extended that lead to 15-10 on another Hylton basket.

Trailing 17-12, the Penguins scored four straight points, two each by Scott and Jaquetta Westley to pull to within a point 17-16 before Caitlin Pauley connected on the game’s first 3-point shot with 3:13 left.

Rachel Manuel added a basket for the Penguins with 1:40 left and neither team scored again as Loyola led 20-18 at intermission.

The Penguins got the better of the first half shooting, 38 to 28 percent, and held a 21-17 edge in rebounds, but committed 12 turnovers.

The Penguins will go on the road for their next three contests, beginning with a trip to Green Bay on Thursday.

mollica@vindy.com