43
Awards keep coming for YSU’s Schlegel
Penguins senior named Horizon player of week
By Joe Scalzo
YOUNGSTOWN
Youngstown State senior Heidi Schlegel was looking at the boxscore on the bus ride home from Saturday’s basketball game at Valparaiso when she noticed that her teammate, Kelsea Newman, had scored a career-high 19 points.
“I was like, ‘Kelsea! You got your career-high!’” Schlegel said. “I was so excited.”
That pretty much sums up Schlegel, who is coming off back-to-back 38-point games but seems embarrassed by all the attention surrounding it.
On her way into Monday’s weekly press conference, a YSU employee started ribbing her about not scoring 40, saying, “You couldn’t have taken a shot in the last four minutes? I would have been chucking that up from half-court if I were you.”
Schlegel’s response? She apologized for missing two of her five free throws.
“I didn’t even know I had 38,” Schlegel said. “I didn’t feel like I had that many points. After the game, I was talking to my boyfriend and I was like, ‘I thought I maybe had 20 points.’”
Schlegel’s week drew comparisons to former YSU standout Brandi Brown, who scored more than 30 points in three out of four games late in the 2012-13 season. It also drew several awards from across the country, including player of the week honors from the Horizon League and College Sports Madness. Schlegel was also among the notables on espnW’s national player of the week announcement.
When told of the Horizon League award (Schlegel’s second straight), YSU women’s coach John Barnes deadpanned, “Surprising.”
A week earlier, Barnes had vowed to put the season in Schlegel’s hands “and let the chips fall where they may.” Two wins later, Barnes said, “A good coach would have done that 15 games ago.
“She’s really just put the team on her back and basically said she’s gonna do whatever it takes to win. She’s just done an incredible job.”
Schlegel upped her scoring average to 18.1 points per game and 10.7 rebounds per game, which both rank third in the league. But with three games left, including Saturday’s match-up with league champion Green Bay, she said it’s too early to think about being in the player of the year mix.
The Penguins (19-7, 8-5) are still a game back of second-place Wright State in the league standings and just a half-game ahead of Cleveland State.
“I guess I’m not worried that right now,” she said of the award. “I’m more focused on how we play the last three games and how we come together as a team to win those games.”