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Skid-snapping victory gives YSU women boost
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YSU sophomore forward Brandi Brown, right, leads the Horizon League in scoring at 18.6 points per game. She’s scored 20 or more points 12 times, including eight times in league play.
By Joe Scalzo
YOUNGSTOWN
The YSU women’s basketball may be looking up at the rest of the Horizon League teams in the standings, but that doesn’t mean things aren’t looking up.
The Penguins are coming off a 79-76 win over Valparaiso on Saturday that snapped a seven-game losing streak and gave them a boost heading into their final road swing of the season.
“As a group, it really raises our confidence,” said sophomore forward Brandi Brown. “It also raises the expectations of how we can play for a whole game, just to keep playing hard and keep fighting the whole game.
“It makes us feel good and makes us want to work hard.”
Brown scored 28 points in the win — no surprise, considering she’s scored 20 or more 12 times this year, including eight times in league play — and YSU got a huge lift from junior guard Kenya Middlebrooks, who tied a school record with seven 3-pointers and finished with 23 points.
“That definitely helped, especially since she’s more of a perimeter player,” said Brown, who leads the Horizon League with 18.6 points per game. “It’s more of a threat because the defense has to look inside and outside and they can’t really handle that for the most part in most defenses that we play against.”
YSU (4-20, 2-13) will play at Detroit on Thursday, followed by a Saturday game at Wright State. The Penguins then play their final road game, at Cleveland State, on Feb. 26 before finishing up with home games against UIC and Loyola.
Detroit (10-13, 4-8) sits eighth in the league standings, while Valparaiso (6-19, 3-10) is ninth. YSU needs to win at least two of its last five games to avoid finishing last in the conference for the third straight year.
“Detroit is a really physical team and really quick, so we’re going to have to match their intensity and match their aggression through the whole game,” Brown said.
The Penguins have already bested their win total from the past two seasons, when they won three games combined, but Brown said the team isn’t satisfied.
“We wanted to win that game [against Valpo] and that same mentality is the one we’re going to keep bringing every game we play and every practice,” she said. “We just want to be prepared so we can win more games.”