Penguins fall to Cleveland State

VINDICATOR STAFF REPORT

CLEVELAND — The Youngstown State women’s basketball team played its best defensive game of the season on Friday and made a late run before falling 57-43 to Cleveland State at the Wolstein Center.

The Penguins held the Vikings to 28.3 percent shooting from the floor. Cleveland State’s 57 points were the fewest scored against YSU this season.

YSU, however, was held to 30.4 percent shooting from the floor, hit four fewer 3-pointers and was outscored 25-13 off turnovers.

Cleveland State has won four straight and five of its last six contests.

Youngstown State freshman Brandi Brown notched her eighth double-double of the season and fifth in Horizon League play, finishing with 16 points and 11 rebounds.

Maryum Jenkins added eight points, all of which came in a five-minute span as the Penguins made their run in the second half.

Angel Roque and Shalonda Winton had 13 points apiece to lead the Vikings.

Cleveland State took its largest lead of the game, 41-25, when Destinee Blue hit two free throws with 9:22 remaining.

Jenkins hit YSU’s first trey of the contest to spark a 12-2 run for the Penguins, which also ended with a Jenkins triple that made the score 43-37 with 5:15 remaining. Cleveland State ended the game on a 14-6 run.

YSU held Cleveland State without a field goal from 11:57 to 4:15, but the Vikings hit three straight shots after Winton ended the drought on a breakaway lay-up.

The Penguins held Kailey Klein, the Horizon League’s leading scorer at 16.5 points per game, to five points on 1-for-11 shooting.

Neither team started out well on the offensive end as both missed seven of their first eight attempts.

Cleveland State had three turnovers in the first two minutes and didn’t hit its first field goal until Jessica Roque hit a triple at the 16:43 mark. The Penguins, however, were held scoreless for five-and-a-half minutes after Brown’s bucket at the 18:33 mark put them ahead 2-0.

Both teams continued to commit turnovers, but Cleveland State started limiting its miscues and made six of its next nine field goals to go ahead by 14.

The Penguins’ 11th turnover — and the Vikings’ eighth steal — in the first 11 minutes allowed Roque to score on a fast-break lay-up to make the score 20-6 with 8:29 remaining.

Brown scored the first six points for the Penguins and had 13 of their 17 points in the first half. Her 12th point of the half came when she grabbed a long rebound, drove down to the middle of the paint and hit a pull-up jumper on a fast break. She had the only five field goals in the first period for the Penguins until Rachael Manuel’s jumper from the left elbow at the 1:06 mark. Manuel’s bucket cut Cleveland State’s lead to 30-17 at the break.

Five of Cleveland State’s 10 field goals in the first half were from 3-point range, but the Vikings hit just 33.3 percent from both inside and outside the arc. YSU was 6-for-24 the field and had 16 turnovers, which CSU converted into 16 points, in the first period.

Cleveland State shot 23.3 percent in the second half and was 1-for-11 from behind the arc. The Vikings attempted 26 treys and 34 deuces in the contest.

Youngstown State will continue its three-game road stretch on Thursday at 5 p.m. at Detroit.