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On the defensive: YSU women shut down RMU
By Greg Gulas
YOUNGSTOWN
Robert Morris entered its game with Youngstown State averaging 83.2 points.
A stingy Penguin defense limited the Colonials to nearly half that output, holding this year’s Northeast Conference pre-season favorites to just 33.9 percent from the field as YSU defeated Robert Morris, 55-46 in women’s basketball action on Beeghly Center’s Dom Rosselli Court.
Sarah Cash had 20 points while Kelsea Newman, Alison Smolinski and Nikki Arbanas each added nine to pace the Penguins, who moved to 4-0 for the fourth time in the last five seasons.
Cash also scored the last nine points of the game after the Colonials pulled to within 43-41 with 5:16 remaining.
“Coach [John Barnes] just told me to keep taking it to her so that’s what I did,” Cash said. “I just try to do whatever it takes to help the team win and if that means to step up in the fourth quarter, then that’s what I’ll do.”
The Penguins allowed RMU (3-2) just eight opportunities from the charity stripe — the Colonials made five — but struggled as they could convert just nine of their 21 chances.
It’s a part of their game in which both Cash and Barnes want to see marked improvement as they move forward.
“We should be better than that at the free throw line. We’ll definitely be working on those,” Cash said.
Added Barnes: “It’s crazy. One game we have one of the best nights in the history of YSU shooting free throws and the next night, we don’t shoot them very well. We practice that a lot and we’ll continue to practice that. It’s just mental. You get up there, you have confidence and you knock them down.
“We really haven’t done a great job of starting strong and being aggressive from the beginning and I thought we did that today. The players really attacked the basket and got some early fouls on the opponent and we were able to get to the free throw line. Down the stretch we all played pretty hard, made some plays and Sarah did her thing down the stretch.”
YSU raced to an early 9-2 advantage on two triples by Newman and another by Arbanas.
Two free throws by Newman at 3:41 of the opening quarter increased their lead to 15-6 with all of the Colonials’ points coming on three buckets from Megan Smith.
A basket by Cash right before the end of the period then staked the Penguins to a 21-10 lead after the first 10 minutes of play.
A triple by Cash to start the second quarter increased the Penguins’ lead to 24-12, but back-to-back buckets by RMU’s Leah Womack ignited an 11-6 run to end the half with YSU clinging to a 27-21 advantage.
“We went into the game knowing that Robert Morris would shoot a lot, so rebounding was our big thing tonight,” Newman noted. “We focused on that during practice and got it done tonight. We knew that if we counted on our defense then we would get things done.”
YSU endured a 7:38 scoring drought from late in the second period to midway through the third stanza, which allowed the Colonials to pull to within 30-27 at the 3:57 mark after intermission.
The Penguins closed on an 11-4 run, however, as they opened a 38-31 lead heading to the final period of play.
Six points by Womack ignited an 8-0 run by the Colonials as RMU cut the deficit to 43-41 at the 5:16 mark, but Cash took the game over by scoring nine of her game-high 20 points down the stretch.