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Penguins fall short of high expectations
By Joe Scalzo
Photo
Youngstown State's Kenya Middlebrooks (5) dribbles the ball under the arm of Bowling Green's Chrissy Steffen during Tuesday’s game at Beeghly Center. Middlebrooks scored 15 in the 73-61 loss.
YOUNGSTOWN
YSU junior Brandi Brown spent her first two years talking about growth and competitiveness and finding the positives in losses and, frankly, she’s tired of it.
“I don’t think we’re focusing on competing anymore,” she said.
With that in mind, there are two ways to look at Tuesday’s 73-61 loss to visiting Bowling Green.
You can say, “Hey, the Penguins lost by 46 points to the Falcons last year, so 12 points isn’t so bad.”
Or, you can see it the way Brown did.
“We expected to win tonight,” she said. “Winning games is our No. 1 priority, Not just competing or losing by 15 or 16 or how many points we lost.
“We expect to win.”
For the first 34 minutes, they played like it.
But after Brown hit two free throws to cut YSU’s deficit to 1, 60-59, with 5:45 left, Bowling Green junior Chrissy Steffen took over.
Steffen, the only returning starter from last year’s NCAA tournament team, scored 10 of the Falcons’ next 12 points, repeatedly finding holes in YSU’s defense to suck the air out of an upset-minded crowd.
“We played terrible defense,” Penguins coach Bob Boldon said of the final six minutes. “There’s no two ways about it. We weren’t tough enough to win the game and that’s frustrating, but I think it’s fixable.
“I think you hope from a coaching standpoint we’re talking in January and February about how this game was one we let get away because we couldn’t get stops. And maybe a conference game we get 3-4-5 stops and win the game.”
Steffen had 21 points, seven rebounds, five assists and four steals for the Falcons (5-2), who have won five straight against the Penguins.
Sophomore Alexis Rogers added a season-high 23 points to go with 11 rebounds.
“She was good,” Boldon said of Rogers. “Her and Steffen, we tried like crazy to guard them. We just couldn’t get it done.”
Brown scored 15 points and grabbed nine rebounds but was limited to 26 minutes due to foul trouble. Kenya Middlebrooks also had 15 and YSU’s bench outscored BGSU 23-9.
The game was a homecoming for Falcons sophomore guard Jillian Halfhill, a Canfield High graduate who went scoreless in 21 minutes but did have four rebounds and an assist.
“I tried to treat it like just another game but I was a little more nervous than usual because everyone was here,” said Halfhill, who drew dozens of extra fans. “But it was fun playing in front of everyone and a win’s very nice.”