YSU women suffer 15th straight loss

By Pete Mollica

YOUNGSTOWN — Even though everybody knew it was coming, it was still a disappointment to the Youngstown State women’s basketball team to suffer its 15th straight loss Saturday afternoon to Wright State 68-51 at Beeghly Center.

The 15-straight losses, including 14 of them in the Horizon League, established a new record for consecutive losses.

Once again, the Penguins (2-23, 0-14) played well the first half as they trailed just 26-25 at intermission. But the Raiders (11-15, 7-8) outscored the Penguins 42-26 in the second half, taking control midway through the final 20 minutes and the Penguins never threatened after that.

“It was just a case of we played hard, but they played better,” said YSU coach Cindy Martin. “In the second half, we never stepped up to the physical play that the officials were allowing.

“We have improved because we just played them much better than when we played them earlier in Dayton,” Martin said.

One Penguin who stepped right up and held her own was freshman guard Macey Nortey, who had a career-high 14 points, the only YSU player in double figures.

Nortey, a 5-foot-3 guard from Long Beach, Calif., tied her career-high mark of six assists and also had two steals.

“I was pleased with my effort today, but it doesn’t mean as much without a victory,” Nortey said. “I really believe that I have what it takes to lead this team and I’m looking forward to doing everything I can over these last four games to get us back on the winning track.”

There wasn’t a whole lot of scoring from either team over the first 10 minutes of the opening half as the score was deadlocked at 11. The Penguins scored four straight points to take a 15-11 lead, but the Raiders regained the lead (16-15) on a 3-point goal by Shey Peddy and didn’t trail again the rest of the half, leading 26-25 at intermission.

The Penguins took their last lead, 29-28, with 18:45 left in the game on a 3-point shot by senior Kelsey Gurganus, but the Raiders then went on a 13-0 run, capped off by back-to-back 3-pointers by Kanisha Ward and Maria Bennett to quickly jump out to a 41-29 lead and were never threatened again.

The Penguins return to action at Loyola next Thursday at 8 p.m.

mollica@vindy.com