Youngstown St. visits Wright St. in Horizon tournament opener

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

The Youngstown State women’s basketball team will try to avoid becoming the ninth Division I program in the last 10 years to finish with a winless record tonight, when the Penguins visit Wright State in the first round of the Horizon League tournament.

The Penguins finished the regular season with an 0-29 record, including 0-18 in the Horizon League. They are the No. 10 seed for the league tournament.

Wright State (10-18, 6-12) is the No. 7 seed for the tournament. The winner of tonight’s game will play at No. 2-seeded Butler on Wednesday.

Youngstown State, which is averaging less than 50 points per game, had two of its worst offensive outputs against Wright State.

The Penguins lost at Wright State, 65-31, on Jan. 30, a game in which they shot just 20.5 percent from the field (9 of 44), and committed 31 turnovers.

In the rematch at the Beeghly Center on Jan. 25, the Raiders won 57-38. YSU shot 29 percent from the field (14 of 48) and was just 7 of 15 at the foul line (42.9 percent).

The Penguins have been led all season by freshman Brandi Brown, who led the team in scoring (11.6 points per game) and rebounding (10.8 per game). She also led YSU with 49 steals, and was the pacesetter in shooting (43.7 percent).

On Sunday Brown was named to the Horizon League’s All Freshman team.

Junior college transfer Bojana Dimitrov averaged 10.2 points per game, despite missing seven contests with injuries.

Wright State is led by LaShawna Thomas, a 5-foot-6 junior from Columbus Eastmoor, who averages 11.5 points per game. Kanisha Ward, a 5-6 senior, is next at 9 points per game and is the Raiders’ best defensive player. Ward was named to the Horizon League’s All Defensive team on Sunday.

Like Youngstown State, the Raiders have a thin bench, dressing just eight players.

They opened the season by winning three of their first four games before a 2-12 stretch. Wright State started 1-6 in the Horizon League before consecutive wins over Cleveland State, YSU and Milwaukee in late January and early February.

The Raiders lost six of their last eight games to finish the regular season, defeating only YSU and Valparaiso.

Milwaukee plays host to Valparaiso in tonight’s other first-round game, with that winner traveling to Green Bay on Wednesday.

The other quarterfinal games are UIC at Cleveland State, and Loyola at Detroit.