YSU women fall in tourney

VINDICATOR STAFF/WIRE

MILWAUKEE, Wis. — The season ended for the Youngstown State women’s basketball team just about the same way that it started four months ago.

Monday night, the Penguins had another poor shooting night, got beaten badly on the boards and suffered a 70-49 loss to UW-Milwaukee in the opening round of the Horizon League postseason tournament.

The Penguins concluded their season with a 3-27 record, while the Panthers (13-17) advanced to the tournament’s quarterfinal round on Wednesday when they play at Butler in Indianapolis.

It was the third loss the Penguins suffered to the Panthers this season and the ninth straight overall as Milwaukee improved to 18-5 all-time against YSU.

First-year coach Cindy Martin of Youngstown State had nothing but good things to say about her basketball team.

“I’m just so proud of these young ladies, especially the seniors who have never given up this season and have continued to work hard every day,” Martin said.

“Milwaukee really did a job on the boards against us tonight and was the big difference,” Martin added.

The Panthers outrebounded the Penguins 59-30, and had 20 offensive rebounds.

Martin also said that she wasn’t thrilled with the officiating of the contest.

“Everybody knows that come tournament time they let you play a little, but that wasn’t the case tonight,” she added.

YSU shot just 29.4 percent from the field, hitting 20-of-68 shots and that was after a first half where they made just 8-of-30 shots for 26.7 percent.

Milwaukee finished the game hitting 41 percent from the field and also made 15-of-17 free throws, including the first 15 in a row.

It was a game that the Penguins never led, as they gell behind 9-2 in the early minutes and then 20-6 with less than 10 minutes remaining in the half.

Freshman Kenya Middlebrooks, who tied her career high of eight points on the night for the Penguins, scored a pair of baskets and Ashley Pendleton added another as the Penguins cut the lead to 10 points (22-12) with five minutes remaining, but Milwaukee still led 30-17 at intermission.

YSU came out and scored the first two baskets of the second half and cut the lead to nine points (30-21), but then the Panthers ripped off 11 straight points, sparked by Traci Edwards and Turquoise McCain, to take control of the contest, 41-21, with under 15 minutes remaining.

The Penguins did get the lead down to 15 points on a 3-point basket by senior Kelsey Gurganus with 8:05 left and they still trailed 60-45 with 6:10 remaining, but that was as close as they would get as the Milwaukee bench took over and scored the final 10 points of the game.

Edwards, who came into the game as the league’s top scorer and rebounder, finished with a game-high 17 points and eight rebounds and played just over half the contest.

McCain finished with 13 points and a game-high 10 rebounds for the Panthers.

The Penguins didn’t have a player in double figures, but senior Nikita LaFleur took high honors with nine points. The Penguins only had 13 turnovers to 23 for the Panthers, but it made little difference.