YSU women win Horizon opener

Staff report

CHICAGo

Four players scored in double figures and Youngstown State held off UIC late for a 69-66 victory at the UIC Pavilion on Thursday in the Horizon League opener for both women’s basketball teams.

The Penguins scored the final seven points of the first half to tie the score at halftime, and they withstood a late Flames run in the second half to start conference play with a victory for the third time in the last four years. Freshman Indiya Benjamin had 12 of her 17 points in the second half, and fellow freshman Nikki Arbanas had 13 of her 15 in the final 20 minutes. Heidi Schlegel added 14 points, and Latisha Walker finished with 11 points.

YSU shot 58.8 percent from the field and was 16-of-18 from the free-throw line in the second half. The Penguins, who entered the contest leading the country in free-throw percentage, finished the game going 25-of-29 from the charity stripe.

YSU is now 12-2 overall and 1-0 in Horizon League play.

Ruvanna Campbell had game highs of 24 points and 13 rebounds to lead the Flames (10-4, 0-1).

Arbanas hit a triple on the first possession of the second half to put the Penguins up 31-28, and that remained the score for the next three minutes. A 3 by UIC’s Melita Emanuel-Carr started a 7-0 run for the Flames that put them ahead 35-31, but YSU answered with a 14-3 run to go up 45-38 on another Arbanas trey at the 11:11 mark. The Penguins held the lead the rest of the game.

That was the first of nine seven-point leads for the Penguins over the next seven minutes, and a layup by Benjamin with 3:55 left gave the Penguins a 62-53 lead. That was the largest margin for either team in the game.

YSU will stay on the road to play at Green Bay on Saturday at 2 p.m. The game will be broadcast live on 570 WKBN and ESPN3.