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Bad second half dooms YSU women
The Vindicator (Youngstown)
Photo
YSU's Tieara Jones shoots and scores past Destinee Blue (24) of CSU Saturday afternoon.
CSU 86
YSU 65
Next: YSU women at Milwaukee, 8 p.m. Thursday.
By Jon Moffett
Youngstown
The Youngstown State women’s basketball team was chugging along in Saturday’s first half against Cleveland State. But not only did the wheels fall off in the second half, the train jumped the tracks.
The Penguins had one of their best shooting performances of the season early, but fell into old habits in the second half of an 86-65 loss to the Vikings.
The Penguins (3-17, 1-8 Horizon League) scored 42 points in the first half — a figure that was more than the team scored the entire game against the Vikings on Feb. 20, 2010. The team shot 54 percent from the field in the first half, but only 21 percent in the second. The team’s 23 second-half points disappointed coach Bob Boldon.
“When we put up those kinds of offensive numbers in the first half, we’ve got to be winning,” he said of his team, which trailed by five at the half. “There’s nobody associated with our program that thought we’d shoot 53 percent in the second half. We’re not good enough.”
The first half figures — 54 from the field, 44 from 3-point range and 88 from the line — were just what Boldon has wanted from his offense all year. But the second half numbers — 21, 17, 64 — were not.
But Boldon said even the gaudy numbers weren’t all that impressive to him.
“I didn’t think the first half was that good,” he said. “We didn’t guard at all in the first half. I don’t think [Cleveland State] did a great job of guarding either, but they picked it up in the second half and we didn’t.”
The Penguin defense gave up 50 points in the paint. Sophomore forward Shalonda Winton led the team with 31 points. She had 18 at the half. Junior center Destinee Blue had 14 at intermission and 20 at the final buzzer.
Junior guard Kenya Middlebrooks had 16 points, including five deep balls. Sophomore forward Brandi Brown had 24.
Brown recorded her 700th point and 500th career rebound in the game. Only four other Penguins have achieved the 700-point milestone in their sophomore years. Of those four, only two finished with 500 career rebounds.
Junior forward Tieara Jones fouled out for the second straight game, and fourth time this year. She had two points and four rebounds when she exited with 9:02 left.
It was a homecoming of sorts for two others. Junior guard Makala Gasparek returned to action from a foot injury. Gasparek, a Boardman High graduate, hadn’t played since the season opener at Pitt on Nov. 12.
Also returning to the sideline was former YSU assistant coach Bernard Scott. Scott served as an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator under Cindy Martin in 2009. Of the 13 players on the current roster, Scott was responsible for 12 of them.