YSU women end losing streak in final game

By Pete Mollica

The Penguins rolled past Valparaiso 54-38 on Senior Day at Beeghly Center.

YOUNGSTOWN — There is nothing like waiting until the final day of the regular season to put your best foot forward.

The Youngstown State women’s basketball team, losers of 18 straight and 26 of 28 games, finally put it all together on the final day of the regular season.

The Penguins posted a relatively easy 54-38 Horizon League victory over Valparaiso before less than 400 fans on Senior Day at Beeghly Center.

The victory was the first in conference play for first-year head coach Cindy Martin and ended a losing streak that started Dec. 30. The 38 points was the fewest allowed by the Penguins since the 1990-91 season when the Penguins defeated Malone College, 109-25.

“I’m extremely happy right now and I’m hoping that this is what this team needed to turn things around,” Martin said.

YSU (3-26, 1-17) moves into the Horizon League postseason tournament as the No. 10 seed and will play at at No. 7 seed UW-Milwaukee Monday at 8 p.m.

Although the Penguins played probably their finest game of the season, they still got a lot of help from Valparaiso (16-13, 10-8), which shot a season-low 23.2 percent from the field and just 10 percent from the 3-point line.

Martin, who started her five eligible seniors in the game, said that gave the team its initial shot in the contest.

“Those seniors have been walking around on pure adrenaline the past 24 hours and they were really looking forward to getting that win today,” Martin said.

“The difference today was that we played an entire 40 minutes,” Martin said. “We, as coaches, knew this is what we’ve been capable of, but it’s just taken us so long to do it.”

“It was the last night on our home floor and it couldn’t have been a more fitting end for these seniors,” she said.

The Penguins only had one player in double figures and that was freshman Camisha Alexander, who has been the hot player the last two weeks of the season. Alexander hit on 4-of-5 3-point shots and finished with 12 points.

The Penguins shot 54.5 percent in the first half, their best first half of the season and finished the game shooting 47.9 percent.

Valparaiso made things a little easier for the Penguins as the Crusaders came out and missed their first 13 shots from the field and the Penguins made them pay dearly.

The Penguins made eight of their first 11 shots from the field and jumped out to an 18-2 lead with 10:59 remaining in the half. The Crusaders didn’t score their first field goal until 9:50 remained in the half.

The Penguins held a 27-15 lead at intermission.

Valparaiso didn’t start much better in the second half making just one of its first seven shots. When Alexander hit back-to-back 3 point shots and Kenya Middlebrooks added a third, the Penguins enjoyed a 42-24 lead with about nine minutes remaining in the contest.

When Alexander connected on her fourth 3-point shot of the game with 6:23 remaining, the Penguins enjoyed their biggest lead, 50-29.

“This is the greatest feeling I’ve had all season and it came on Senior Day,” senior Ashley Pendleto said. “The ball rolled our way a lot today, but we played great D. It’s going to be a big boost to our confidence going into the tournament.”

Martin said she really didn’t care who the Penguins would be playing in the first round of the tournament.

“Whether its UIC or Milwaukee we feel that we’ll match up pretty good with either one,” she said. “At this time of the year anything is possible.”

mollica@vindy.com