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YSU women crush Lake Erie College
By Dan Hiner
Youngstown
The Youngstown State University women’s basketball team played its second Division II team in the last three days and the outcome was as expected. The Penguins won their matchup with Lake Erie College 89-61 on Wednesday.
Lake Erie (4-5) was able to keep things close after forcing eight turnovers in the first quarter. The Storm were able to score five points off turnovers and cut the Penguins’ lead to 20-16 at the end of the first.
“They forced us into some turnovers that we don’t normally make,” YSU head coach John Barnes said. “All of those things are kind of a combination, but again, I was just happy that we were able to turn up the pressure a little bit — I think that got us going — and we were able to make some shots which kinda opened up our lead and we were able to go from there.”
YSU (9-1) started to pull away in the second quarter. Starting with 3:48 left in the first half, guard Nikki Arbanas scored seven points in a 42-second span to push the Penguins’ lead to 36-22. Later in the second quarter, YSU’s Kelsea Newman connected on five free throws in a row after being fouled three times while YSU was in the bonus.
The Penguins took a 49-25 lead into halftime and Lake Erie was never able to catch up. Newman led all scorers with 17 points and Arbanas finished with 15. Six other players scored at least eight points. Kayla Gabor led Lake Erie with 14 points.
Part of YSU’s success in the game stemmed from Jenna Hirsch’s performance off the bench. Hirsch, who has been dealing with a back injury she suffered in practice earlier in the season, finished with nine points, four rebounds and six assists.
“It’s been a slow start to the year with me with just injuring my back, so these last two games have been really good for me — just trying to get my confidence back,” Hirsch said. “And today I got more confidence. So hopefully going into Akron I could help the team more.”
YSU was able to continue its recent success from behind the 3-point line. The Penguins were 15 of 32 (46.9 percent), from behind the line. The 15 3-pointers were one shy of the YSU record set against Oakland earlier this season.
It is the third time this season the Penguins have made 15 or more 3-pointers in a game.
“The first four or five games we really struggled from the 3-point line and as of late, we’ve really been connecting from behind the 3-point line,” Barnes said. “It’s obviously nice to see them go in, but it also opens up our inside game. Once we start making those outside 3s, they can’t sag in the lane as much on our post players and it kinda opens everything up.”
YSU swept its three-game home stand with the win on Wednesday aftter blowouts of Kent State and Salem International on Saturday and Monday. The Penguins outscored their opponents 260-162 over the past three games. Now the Penguins will go on the road to play Akron this coming Monday.
“The next few days of practice we know that we’re going to have to work really hard. These games they’re behind us,” Hirsch said.
“Now, going into Akron, we know that they’re a really good team and we know that going into these next few days of practice we’re going to have to push really hard in order to perform well on Monday.”