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Boldon: Bring on the best
By Jon Moffett
YOUNGSTOWN
Photo
Bob Boldon
YSU Women's Preview
Matchup: YSU (0-1) vs. Bowling Green (0-1).
Tip-off: 7 p.m. at Anderson Arena.
Radio/TV: WKBN-AM (570).
Coaches: YSU — Bob Boldon 0-1 at YSU, 59-33 career; Bowling Green — Curt Miller 206-81 at school and career.
YSU starters: Maryum Jenkins (6 points per game, 1 rebound per game, 5 assists per game), 5-8 sophomore guard; Bojana Dimitrov (14 ppg, 11 rbg, 1 apg) 5-7 senior guard, Kenya Middlebrooks (3 ppg, 5 rpg, 2 apg) 5-8 junior guard, Tieara Jones (3 ppg, 3 rpg) 6-0 junior forward, Brandi Brown (20 ppg, 7 rpg) 5-11 sophomore forward.
Bowling Green starters: Maggie Hennegan (12 ppg, 10 rpg, 2 apg) 6-0 senior forward, Jen Uhl (4 ppg, 2 rpg, 3 apg) 6-1 senior forward, Lauren Prochaska (17 ppg, 9 rpg, 2 apg) 5-11 senior guard, Tracy Pontius (12 ppg, 4 rpg, 3 apg) 5-6 senior guard, Chrissy Steffen (7 ppg, 5 rpg, 3 apg) 6-0 sophomore guard.
Series history: Bowling Green leads 13-10. Last meeting: YSU 79, Bowling Green 67.
Notebook: The Penguins lost to the University of Pittsburgh 78-58 last Friday, Bowling Green lost to Evansville 63-62. ... The Penguins set a school record for most three-pointers attempted with 48. They made 10 of them ... Four players made their debuts for the Penguins against Pitt. Junior Tieara Jones, redshirt freshman Melissa Thompson and freshmen Monica Touvelle (Boardman) and Liz Hornberger ... Senior Bojana Dimitrov recorded her first career double-double against Pitt. She scored 14 points and had 11 rebounds.
Next game: YSU plays vs. IPFW at 1:05 p.m. Saturday at Beeghly Center.
Vindicator staff report
Game time
Who: YSU women at Bowling Green.
Tipoff: Wednesday, 7 p.m., at Anderson Arena.
Records: YSU 0-1, Bowling Green 2-1.
Radio/Internet: WKBN-AM (570); America One Broadband Broadcasting.
Bob Boldon knows the only way too get better is to play against the very best.
That’s why Boldon isn’t going to shy away from playing big-name programs while the Youngstown State women’s basketball team searches for an identity.
The Penguins’ first game was a 78-58 loss to perennial power Pitt. They’ll travel to Bowling Green (0-1) on Wednesday for game two.
“It’s a great experience to learn from because you have two programs that have had great success over the years, and will most likely have success again this year,” Boldon said at his Monday press conference. “You get the chance to guard them, play against them offensively and you get a realistic idea of where you are. You get a very real idea of how good you are offensively and defensively.”
These games will give the Penguins an idea of where the program can be. If it can hang with the top programs, it should be able to so with Horizon League foes.
Boldon said the game against Pitt, where the Penguins trailed by two at halftime — should be the measuring stick for the rest of the season.
“If you can compete against these teams that we’re playing in our non-conference schedule, then going on the road in the conference doesn’t seem like such a tall task,” he said. “We’re still going to have our hands full every time we go on the road and with all of our conference games. But at least we have something to draw on.
“Whether we’re successful or not, it’s something we can learn from one way or another.”
The best part about the games, regardless of the outcome, is to have film. Boldon said it was immensely more helpful to have game tape of the team against an opponent than that of practice.
And the tape doesn’t lie.
“After looking at the video, I thought we did some things well,” he said. “The most obvious thing we did poorly was shoot the ball. And after watching the video, we still shot poorly.”
Boldon said he was happy with the team’s shot selection and execution of his fluid offense for the most part — until the end, that is.
“I’d rather not miss quite so many shots,” he said. “But I was happy with the execution to get the shots that we took. We did things well offensively. I thought for the most part we took care of the basketball and executed what we were trying to offensively. But the final part of execution is making the shot.”
Shooting has been the Achilles heel for the women’s program in the past few years. The Penguins shot just under 27 percent on the day.
“I’m very concerned about our shooting percentage,” he said. “We’ve been concerned about that since the day we started. I said last week that I thought we had made improvements but weren’t very good yet. I think we proved that we’re not very good yet.
“That’s an area that needs attention. And we’re going to give it as much attention as we can.”
Out of those 71 shots, 48 were from behind the 3-point line. That figure broke the school record for such attempts.
Boldon said the volume of 3s is unlikely to change as it is a vital part of the offense.
The Penguins will open at home Saturday against IPFW. The game will start at 1:05 p.m.