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Despite injuries, YSU women stay positive
By Joe Scalzo
YOUNGSTOWN
It’s never a good sign when, after just two games, your first press conference question is, “How many healthy players do you have?”
But hey, at least Youngstown State women’s basketball coach John Barnes managed to laugh.
“We are in the same boat we have been right now [that we were] for [the] last game,” Barnes said. “We’re trying to get possibly one more back for Wednesday.”
That player, senior Melissa Thompson, started every game last season as well as this year’s opener, but sat out last week’s loss to Buffalo with a knee injury.
But even with Thompson, Barnes only has 10 healthy players, which makes it difficult to practice.
“We really don’t have enough players to practice,” he said. “But the players are staying positive. They’re continuing to work hard. We’re coming into this [Wednesday’s] game like any other game, doing everything we can to get a W.”
The Penguins (0-2) will play host to Northern Kentucky (2-1) in the first game of a doubleheader, with the YSU men playing Thiel afterward.
The Norse upset YSU last season, 66-64, for the first Division I victory in school history. (They were a Division II team until last season.)
“We definitely want revenge on them,” said YSU redshirt sophomore Ashley Lawson, who made her first collegiate start against Buffalo after battling injuries the previous two years. “They’re supposed to be a team that’s just like us. I think it’s going to be a good challenge, so I hope we come up with it.”
With four potential rotation players injured (Shar’Rae Davis, Monica Touvelle, Amanda Barger and Janae Jackson), junior forward Heidi Schlegel has stepped up, averaging career-highs in points (25) and rebounds (nine) while shooting 45.9 percent from the field.
Junior Latisha Walker battled foul trouble against Buffalo but scored 18 points with 10 rebounds in her YSU debut against VCU.
Led by forward Melody Doss (25.7 points, 7.7 rebounds per game), Northern Kentucky has already beaten Cincinnati and Illinois State this season.
Although the programs have met only once, the teams’ coaches are familiar with each other.
Barnes and NKU head coach Dawn Plitzuweit both played basketball at Michigan Tech from 1991-95 and they were both women’s basketball assistants at the University of Michigan in 2011-12.
“Northern Kentucky is playing very well,” Barnes said. “They’re very tough, they’re well-coached, they take care of the basketball and they don’t make a lot of mistakes.
“I think our team is very hungry for a win and we’re going to work extremely hard.”