YSU women fall to Delaware
Staff report
BETHLEHEM, pa.
The Youngstown State women’s basketball team cut a 16-point deficit to five by halftime, but Delaware pulled away in the second half for a 69-48 victory in the Lehigh Christmas City Classic on Friday night.
The Penguins trailed by just five with 13 minutes to play, but went eight minutes without a basket and the Blue Hens pulled away.
YSU turned the ball over 21 times in the game, including 13 in the second half. The Blue Hens outscored the Penguins 25-0 off turnovers in the final 20 minutes.
YSU’s Heidi Schlegel tied for game-high honors with 17 points, but she was held scoreless over the final 12 minutes. Monica Touvelle and Jenna Hirsch both finished with eight points, and Hirsch added a career-high seven rebounds.
YSU (3-7) will play Vermont in the tournament’s consolation game at 2 p.m. today while Delaware (7-2) will play Lehigh at 4:30 p.m.
YSU started 1-for-10 from the field with Schlegel’s bucket at the 18:45 mark being the only field goal in the first five minutes. That allowed Delaware to go up 12-3 in the first five minutes, and the Blue Hens ended up taking a 20-6 lead with 13:12 remaining in the first half. YSU switched to a zone defense, and the Blue Hens scored just 12 points the rest of the period.
YSU held the Blue Hens to two points over a span of nearly six minutes and slowly started to chip away at the deficit. A Schlegel 3-pointer with three minutes left in the first half capped a 10-2 run and got the Penguins within 22-16, and a Hirsch triple with 1:21 remaining made it a one-possession game at 30-27. Buchanan scored on the next possession to put the Blue Hens up five at the break.
Delaware scored the first six points of the second half to go up 38-27, but YSU scored six of the next seven points to get within 38-33.