Penguin women prepared for HL

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

Coming off his team’s most complete performance of the season, YSU women’s basketball coach Bob Boldon might normally be worried about overconfidence.

But after watching his team lose on the road to a 2-10 Stony Brook team last week, he doesn’t think it’ll be a problem.

“I think that loss in New York hit some people pretty hard,” said Boldon, whose team rebounded to drub Cleveland State 70-48 in Saturday’s Horizon League opener at Beeghly Center. “There was a high level of disappointment and a real sense of urgency to make a change and make sure it didn’t happen again.

“I think that’s what happened with Saturday’s game. That was good for us.”

Wit the victory over the Vikings, the Penguins (7-5, 1-0 Horizon League) bested their win total from last season and snapped a nine-game losing streak to CSU.

Tonight in Indianapolis, they’ll look to snap a 11-game losing streak to Butler that includes 10 double-digit losses. The Bulldogs (4-9, 0-2) are scoring just 57.3 points per game — second-worst in the league — but are holding opponents to 59.7 per game, which is fourth-best in the Horizon.

The Bulldogs also run a “ridiculous amount” of sets, Boldon said, which makes them a preparation nightmare.

“I wish they’d run less,” said Boldon, who faced a similar situation against Akron two weeks ago, a game YSU won 78-72. “We know we’ll see something we didn’t prepare for. You can’t go over 30 sets in two days. It’s just not feasible.”

YSU has played seven of its first 12 games on the road and Boldon believes the schedule has prepared the Penguins for Horizon League competition.

“The makeup of our league is we’re going to be challenged every single night,” he said. “We have to give a great effort every single night and our next big challenge is give that effort on a consistent basis.

“We expect to beat Butler just as much as Butler expects to beat us and that’s got to be the mentality in this conference.”