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Penguins focusing on home games for rebound
The Vindicator (Youngstown)
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YSU's Tieara Jones shoots and scores past Destinee Blue (24) of CSU Saturday afternoon.
YSU Women's Preview
Matchup: YSU (3-19, 1-10 Horizon League) vs. Butler (14-9, 8-3).
Tip-off: 7:05 p.m. at Beeghly Center.
Radio/TV: WKBN-AM (850); Horizon League Network.
Coaches: YSU — Bob Boldon 3-19 in one year at YSU, 62-51 in four-year career; Butler — Beth Couture 142-122 in nine years at school and 400-239 in 22-year career.
YSU starters: Macey Nortey (4.6 points per game, 1.6 rebounds per game) 5-3 junior guard, Kenya Middlebrooks (8.4 ppg, 3.3 rpg) 5-8 junior guard, Bojana Dimitrov (7.4 ppg, 2.9 rpg) 5-7 senior guard, Tieara Jones (7.6 ppg, 5.5 rpg) 6-0 junior forward, Brandi Brown (18.1 ppg, 9.4 rpg) 5-11 sophomore forward.
Butler starters: Claire Freeman (4.1 ppg, 3 rpg) 5-8 sophomore guard, Devin Brierly (5.6 ppg, 2.4 rpg) 5-9 junior guard, Brittany Bowen (15.1 ppg, 6.3 rpg) 5-10 senior forward, Chloe Hamilton (14.2 ppg, 7 rpg) 5-10 senior forward, Becca Bornhorst (4.5 ppg, 4.9 rpg) 6-1 sophomore forward.
Series history: Butler 17-5. Last meeting: Butler won 88-69 on Jan. 15.
Notebook: YSU has dropped the past 10 contests to Butler, which began the Penguins’ current six-game skid last month ... Brandi Brown leads the Horizon League with 18.1 points per game. She is ranked third in the conference with 9.4 rebounds per contest ... The Penguins are last in the conference in scoring and points allowed.
Next game: YSU plays host to Valparaiso on Feb. 12 at 4:35 p.m.
By Jon Moffett
YOUNGSTOWN
It’s been a hot and cold kind of a season for the Youngstown State women’s basketball team.
Unfortunately, it’s been more like a lukewarm and freezing season for the Penguins. And things may have reached absolute zero in the team’s latest loss. A trip to Wisconsin resulted in a 84-25 loss to nationally-ranked Green Bay.
“We hadn’t had a terrible weekend all year, and we finally did,” head coach Bob Boldon said at his weekly press conference. “It was probably the worst of all places to have a bad weekend. It was a tough trip and in this process, there is going to be one of those weekends.
“They’re a very good team, and they played very well,” he added. “We’re not a very good team, and we played very badly. And that’s just a bad combination, especially when you’re the road team.”
Prior to the Green Bay blowout, the Penguins also fell to Milwaukee 81-66 in the first of the games in a weekend that showed a lot of success for Wisconsin sports teams.
But Boldon knows it can’t stay cold forever. And both the weather and his team have got to heat up sometime. And a two-game homestand could be just what the Penguins (3-19, 1-10 Horizon League) need for a rebound.
The Penguins will host Butler — who started the team’s current six-game losing streak — and Valparaiso, who the Penguins defeated earlier this season for their lone conference win.
Tipoff against Butler is at 7:05 p.m. today.
But Boldon was upbeat when addressing the media. He said despite the lopsided loss he and the team were taking it in stride. However, that doesn’t mean it still doesn’t sting a little.
“Losing is difficult no matter how you take it,” Boldon said. “We were saying the same thing two weeks ago when we lost those two games at home and were two-point games with two minutes to go. Those don’t feel any better than getting blown out on the road.
“I think losing is wearing on all of us,” he added. “But we’re trying our best to stay positive and try to get prepared to play two games this week.”
Butler (14-9, 8-3) is behind only unbeaten Green Bay (11-0) in the Horizon League standings. The Bulldogs won 88-69 the previous meeting in Indiana. Alyssa Pittman had 18 points for the Bulldogs and Brandi Brown had a game-high 21 for the Penguins.
The Bulldogs shot a blistering 62 percent from the field and 61 percent from beyond the arc. The Penguins shot 46 percent overall and 38 percent from deep.