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Big week ahead for YSU women’s hoops
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After scoring a season low six points in Saturday’s loss to Green Bay, YSU senior Heidi Schlegel “sulked for 36 hours.” But she woke up Monday ready to move on. Schlegel’s Penguins will play at Cleveland State on Wednesday at the Wolstein Center.
By Joe Scalzo
YOUNGSTOWN
Saturday’s 46-point loss to Green Bay did have one positive for Youngstown State’s women’s basketball team.
“I think the loss kind of put back in their mind how much they hate to lose,” Penguins coach John Barnes said. “It’s good in a way because it’ll fire us up that much more to try to get the win Wednesday against Cleveland State.”
YSU (19-8, 8-6) is tied for third place in the Horizon League with the Vikings (16-11, 8-6), who lost to the Penguins 79-65 on Jan. 15 at Beeghly Center. Green Bay already has clinched the conference’s regular-season title, while Wright State is second.
A win on Wednesday would clinch a first-round home tournament game for the Penguins and secure just the second 20-win season since joining the Horizon League in 2001-02. The 2012-13 team finished 23-10, advancing to the second round of the Women’s NIT.
“That’s always a number you shoot for, in terms of a nice milestone for a season,” Barnes said of 20 wins. “It means a lot in terms of where the program is headed and has been recently and hopefully we can keep going in that direction.”
Senior Heidi Schlegel had 25 points and 18 rebounds in YSU’s Jan. 15 win over CSU and senior Latisha Walker added 21 points as the Penguins finished with a 40-26 edge on points in the paint.
“I thought we executed very well on both ends against Cleveland State,” he said. “They’re a little bit undersized and I anticipate them doubling in the post [on Wednesday].”
Schlegel is coming off a season-low six-point game against the Phoenix — she’s reached double figures in every other Horizon League game this season — and admitted she “sulked about it for 36 hours.
“But this morning I woke up and it’s a new week,” she said Monday. “It’s my last week of the regular season and I want to take full advantage of it, like I have my whole career.”
Schlegel and Walker will celebrate senior day on Saturday against Valparaiso. The Penguins need only to win one of their last two games to earn a home tournament game — the top four seeds each play at home in the first round on March 11 — and if they can win both, as well as a first-round game, they could earn a WNIT bid.
YSU has already qualified for the Women’s Basketball Invitational Tournament (WBIT), Barnes said.
“We’ve been crunching numbers, but they use a lot of different factors,” Barnes said of the WBIT bid. “I don’t think it’s just about reaching 20 wins. Its also about road wins, where you finish in your conference, RPI and all that stuff. And some of it is just the opinion of people who are deciding. That can obviously keep you in or out.”