YSU starts fast, finishes gassed

Penguins guard Camisha Alexander scored 15 points in a 73-50 loss to Detroit.

DETROIT — Freshman guard Camisha Alexander scored a career-high 15 points in her first start, but the Youngstown State women’s basketball team didn’t have enough support in a 73-50 loss to Detroit on Saturday.

The Titans (6-13, 2-6 Horizon League) had runs of 11-0 and 19-1 in the first half to offset Youngstown State’s 8-2 lead to start the game.

Chanica Hall scored 19 points to lead Detroit, while Sandi Brown had 14 points and 14 rebounds. Heather Hatter finished with 13 points.

Alexander scored all of her points on 3-pointers and finished 5-for-7 from behind the arc. Unfortunately for the Penguins, the rest of the team was 2-of-9 on 3-pointers and 13-of-40 overall.

Kelsey Gurganus added eight points and five assists for Youngstown State (2-16, 0-7).

Detroit, which led 44-31 at halftime, shot 44 percent from the field (24-of-55) and went 21-of-27 at the foul line.

The Penguins were only 7-for-9 at the charity stripe and were outrebounded, 38-21.

Rachael Manual and Ashley Pendleton led Youngstown State with four rebounds each.

Alexander surpassed her career-high in the first 10 minutes by making her first three 3-point attempts. She scored 15 of YSU’s 31 points in the opening half by going 5-of-6 from the floor.

YSU trailed just 23-21 at the 8:35 mark on Gurganus’ jumper, but YSU was held without a field goal for the next seven minutes as Detroit went on a 19-1 run and built a 42-22 lead with 1:53 remaining in the half. YSU was able to close out the half on a 9-2 run to make the deficit 44-31 at the break.

Youngstown State will play host to UIC and Loyola in a pair of doubleheaders next week. The Penguins and Flames will open the week on Thursday at 5:15 p.m.