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YSU women host Horizon League’s best in Green Bay
By Joe Scalzo
YOUNGSTOWN
With Youngstown State senior Heidi Schlegel coming off back-to-back 38-point games, Green Bay might be tempted to quadruple team her during today’s game at Beeghly Center.
“I probably would, if I was them,” Penguins coach John Barnes said. “[But] with Green Bay, they play their game. They don’t care who they’re playing or how good a certain player is. They’re going to do what they do and they do it very well.”
That said ...
“They’ll definitely make sure everyone knows where Heidi is,” Barnes said.
The Penguins (19-7, 8-5 Horizon League) have won four straight games entering Saturday’s showdown with the league’s top team, which has already clinched its 17th straight regular-season conference championship. The Phoenix (22-4, 12-1) are coming off a 71-32 victory over UIC in which the Flames shot 14.9 percent from the field.
“Thirty-two total points?” Barnes said. “That’s pretty good defense.”
The Penguins got a taste of that defense on Jan. 10 when Green Bay held them to a season-low in points in a 66-43 loss. YSU has scored at least 50 points in every other game and is second in the Horizon League in scoring at 71.4 points per game.
Schlegel had 14 points in that Jan. 10 game — the only YSU player to score more than seven — and thinks the team was “intimidated.”
“We’ve got to come with confidence and play our game and not worry about what they’re going to do,” she said.
The Penguins are 3-29 all-time against Green Bay, but two of those wins came last year when YSU swept the season series. With a win Saturday, the Penguins would clinch just their second 20-win season since joining the Horizon League in 2001-02.
“I think getting a win against Green Bay would give us a lot of confidence going into the last two games and going into the tournament,” Schlegel said. “They are a great team, so it would mean a lot.”