First-half woes doom Penguin women at Loyola

Staff report

chicago

Loyola made eight 3-pointers to build a big first-half lead, and the Youngstown State women’s basketball team couldn’t overcome it despite a solid second-half effort in a 70-53 loss to the Ramblers on Friday in the Horizon League opener for both schools.

The Ramblers were ahead 48-22 at halftime and led by as many as 28. YSU trimmed the margin to 15 in the second half and outscored Loyola 31-22 in the final 20 minutes.

YSU’s Brandi Brown scored a game-high 21 points and grabbed 11 rebounds, and Tieara Jones posted her first double-double with 11 points and a game-best 13 rebounds. The Penguins’ other seven players combined for 21 points.

Loyola’s Monica Albano finished with 20 points despite being held scoreless for the first 16 minutes. She had 12 of Loyola’s 22 points in the second half, and she was the only Rambler to score for a 12-minute stretch in the period. Lindsey Sebetic scored 10 of her 12 points in the first half, and Lisa Samplawski had eight of her 10 points in the opening period.

Loyola’s bench outscored YSU’s 23-10.

Loyola shot 45.5 percent for the game, but the Ramblers hit on 56.7 percent of their attempts in the first half as they built their lead. YSU held Loyola to 32.0 percent in the second half, and the Ramblers hit just two triples in the period.

YSU made 27 percent of its attempts for the game and was 5-for-27 from 3-point range.

In the first half, Brittany Boeke and Sebetic accounted for all of Loyola’s first 13 points as the Ramblers went up early.

Sebetic’s four-point play with 12:23 remaining made the score 13-4. Liz Hornberger’s triple cut the score to 13-7 with 11:43 left, but that’s when shots started to fall for Loyola.