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YSU women end first half with ninth defeat
By Joe Catullo Jr.
YOUNGSTOWN
First-year coach John Barnes’ struggles during the Youngstown State women’s basketball team’s non-conference schedule finally ended after the final buzzer sounded Saturday.
The Penguins ended their first half of the season with a 66-57 loss to IUPUI.
Liz Hornberger remained as optimistic as she normally does during the postgame press conference, repeating what she told her teammates in the locker room.
“All of these 13 games are supposed to make us better for conference,” Hornberger said. “I think we’re a good team.
“I think the conference is up for grabs,” she said. “I think we’re the potential front-runners, regardless of where they’re placing us right now.
“We have the talent. We have the effort. We just have to play a full 40 minutes. We’re playing 37 right now.”
The Penguins (4-9), who trailed by seven points at halftime, scored five points and committed four turnovers in the first nine minutes of the second half.
Latisha Walker scored six consecutive points, trimming the deficit to 41-38. Walker finished with 10 points and a team-high six rebounds.
Hornberger nailed a 3-pointer with 6:39 remaining in the game. The Jaguars (10-5) led, 47-45, when they sprang on a 10-3 scoring run.
“We worked hard to get back into it,” Barnes said. “Then they settled down, made a little run and got some easy baskets. That takes the wind out of your sails when you work hard to cut it, and then they go back up by nine.”
Heidi Schlegel scored a game-high 22 points, her eighth 20-point effort this year. Hornberger finished with a career-high 19 points after not scoring a point against Akron last Sunday. She also tallied the only three 3-pointers YSU made all game.
“That’s one of the main problems on the team. I’m way too inconsistent,” Hornberger said. “I need to step up if we’re going to win games. It’s nice to get a career high, but I need to be more consistent if I’m going to be a leader on this team.”
DeAirra Goss led the Jaguars with 17 points. Akilah Sims and Nevena Markovic each scored 16 points. All three finished with seven rebounds apiece.
YSU shot 45.3 percent from the field but only 18.8 percent beyond the 3-point line. The Penguins also made six free throws on 13 attempts (46.2 percent). IUPUI made 43.4 percent of its field goals and 25 percent from downtown.
“We didn’t play bad defense, but we gave them too many possessions,” Hornberger said. “I mean, in the second half, they had possessions where they got three or four offensive rebounds in a row. We’re not talented enough to stop teams that many times.”
The Penguins begin conference play at Valparaiso on Thursday, the last-ranked team in the Horizon League.
“We’re already thinking about Valparaiso and how we’re going to go up against them,” Barnes said. “We played a lot of really good teams. Hopefully they helped prepare us for conference.”