43
YSU women off to record start
By Steve Wilaj
YOUNGSTOWN
With a 92-43 win against Oberlin College on Saturday at the Beeghly Center, the Youngstown State women’s basketball team etched its name into the record books.
The Penguins (7-0) are off to the best start in the program’s Division I history. They topped the previous best-mark set by the 1996-97 team, which won its first six games before being defeated.
“I’m happy for the team because they’ve worked really hard all summer and going into the season,” head coach John Barnes said. “So it’s nice to see them be a part of something that’s in the record books now.
“Honestly, how much did we think and worry about it? Not much. But down the road, they can look back and say ‘Hey, I was part of one of the best starts in the history of the school.’”
Freshman guard Nikki Arbanas — who led YSU with 13 points on Saturday — agreed the record is a testament of the team’s hard work.
“It means a lot to us,” she said. “It proves that how hard we’ve been working at practice is paying off. Now we need to keep working harder.”
YSU had little trouble disposing of Oberlin, a Division III school.
The Yeowomen hung round early, taking a 12-11 lead with 11:17 remaining in the first half.
But then the Penguins came alive, using a 20-0 run to build a 31-12 lead. The run — which was paced by 11 Arbanas points (three 3s) — lasted from the 11:01 mark to the 6:20 mark. In all, YSU outscored Oberlin 29-7 over the last 11 minutes of the first half.
The Penguins continued that pace in the second half, outscoring Oberlin 52-25 in the final 20 minutes.
“We started off more flat than we had hoped,” Arbanas said. “But once we got into the swing of things, we turned it around.”
Including Arbanas, the Penguins had four players score in double figures. Janae Jackson joined her with 12 points, while Sarah Cash and Indiya Benjamin notched 11 apiece.
All 12 YSU players in uniform found the scoring column. Heidi Schlegel added nine as Krista Pietropola and Morgan Olson each scored eight points.
“It was great to have everybody get in and score,” Barnes said. “The minutes that the bench players got today is invaluable for the times we get in foul trouble or whatever happens.”
Lindsey Bernhardt led Oberlin (3-4) with 12 points.
YSU will get a week off until it tries to continue its record pace at Canisius on Saturday at 7 p.m.
While Horizon League play begins on Jan. 8, the Penguins have six more non-conference games in the meantime. Arbanas said YSU simply wants to improve with each contest.
“The teams that we’re gonna play will have not just one or two good girls — they’re gonna have five,” she said. “So we all need to pick it up on the defensive end and take care of the ball on the offensive end.”