YSU ‘Cash-es’ in at line to rally past Canisius

By Steve WILAJ

swilaj @vindy.com

youngstown

In the days leading up to Youngstown State’s season-opener, Sarah Cash — feeling like she was struggling with her foul shot — had been shooting plenty of free throws during practice. Then on her own time, the sophomore forward from Lordstown High School made sure to take some extra shots outside of practice.

Ironically, on Friday inside the Beeghly Center, Cash found herself on the foul line in a tie game with Canisius with just 0.6 seconds remaining. And in a brief break before the crucial free throws, head coach John Barnes gave her a reminder.

“I was really nervous but my team kept saying I’d make them and coach Barnes just kept saying to think about how many times you’ve practiced them, “ Cash said.

Said Barnes: “ I was hoping that would put some ease to her mind.”

It worked, as Cash buried both free throws to propel YSU to a 53-51 season-opening victory.

While Cash — who walked on to the team last season before earning a scholarship this year — led the way with a career-high 19 points and eight rebounds, the Penguins (1-0) climbed back from a 20-point halftime deficit to steal a win from the Griffins (0-1).

“Definitely that they’re never gonna give up,” Barnes said when asked what he learned about his team. “They’re gonna continue to work hard and believe.

“This is going to be a trying year. We’re going to have some serious ups and downs and there are lessons to be learned. But it’s gonna be fun. To walk into the locker room and see how happy they all were — I’ll probably never forget it.”

Although Cash capped the comeback, the Penguins used a team-effort to erase a 12-point fourth-quarter deficit.

Three Cash layups and another by Janae Jackson cut Canisius’ lead to one with 3:15 remaining. YSU then took its first lead on a Nikki Arabanas layup with 1:49 left.

After Griffins guard Tamara Miksovic nailed a 3-pointer to put Canisius back ahead by two, another Cash layup tied the game with 22.3 seconds, before YSU got a defensive stop with 1.7 seconds left and Cash was fouled on the following inbounds play.

“It says a lot about our team,” Cash said. “We can go through adversity and we still made a good comeback to win. Since it’s only our first game, we have a lot of room to improve — which will make us even better for the end of the season.”

The Penguins came out cold, shooting just 19 percent in the first half — including 2 of 14 on 3’s and 4 of 12 on free throws — as they fell behind, 36-16. But they did just enough in the second half, shooting 41 percent and outscoring Canisius 37-15.

Point guard Indiya Benjamin notched seven points and three assists, while Arabanas added nine points and Janae Jackson had seven.

“Basically we just said that we have to chip away and do a better job of taking care of the ball,” Barnes said. “Then we started to attack in the second half — that was one of our points of emphasis. ...In the fourth, we decided to pick up full court and put more pressure on and we were able to turn them over a few times, fortunately, and we made some shots.”