Barnes’ Penguins on roll

January 19, 2014 at 12:09a.m.

YOUNGSTOWN

After a shaky start, the last two weeks have taught Penguin women’s basketball fans two things:

Youngstown State has adapted to John Barnes.
Barnes is still adapting to Youngstown’s state.

This explains why the first-year coach, who hails from Michigan’s upper peninsula, was battling a cold on Saturday.

“If it wouldn’t go from 52 [degrees] to negative-12, I might not get sick,” he said.

This also explains why a team that started the season 4-9 is now alone at the top of the Horizon League with a 4-0 record.

“I talked to the team after the game about that,” Barnes said after Saturday’s 87-71 victory over Milwaukee. “It’s great to be in first place and we’ve worked really hard to get there, but the season is still really young. We’ve got a lot of games left.”

Heidi Schlegel scored 20 points and grabbed seven rebounds for the Penguins (8-9), who had never even started 3-0 in the Horizon League.

It was the 10th 20-point game of Schlegel’s season — she had one 20-point game in 56 career games entering this season — and it came on just 12 shots.

Add in 17 points from Liz Hornberger (two fewer than her career-high) and 14 from Monica Touvelle (who moved into a tie for third on YSU’s all-time 3-pointers list) and there was a lot to like offensively.

Defensively? Not as much.

When asked about how he felt his team guarded Milwaukee standouts Ashley Green (25 points) and Angela Rodriguez (18 points), Barnes quipped, “Did we guard them?”

“Defensively, we really struggled in the first half,” said Barnes, whose team led 45-37 at the break. “I thought we did a better job in the second half.”

Youngstown State jumped out to a 7-1 lead and never trailed, leading by double digits for most of the second half.

Senior Karen Flagg added 11 points, freshman point guard Jenna Hirsch shook off a rough shooting night (3 of 12) to dish out a career-best nine assists and senior Melissa Thompson (who has been sitting out practices to rest her bad knee) had six points and six rebounds in 14 solid minutes.

That depth has helped change the conversation from who YSU lost (Brandi Brown, Shar’Rae Davis, Bob Boldon) to who YSU returned. And, maybe more importantly, who YSU developed.

“I’m really happy because I wanted to win with this group,” Hornberger said. “I want to win with the girls on my team. I don’t want to have to come back next year and watch them win. I don’t want Brandi to come back and win. I want to win with the group of girls we have because everyone told us we couldn’t.”