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YSU women entering critical stretch
By STEVE WILAJ
YOUNGSTOWN
Just about one month remains in the regular season for the Youngstown State women’s basketball team and the good news is that the Penguins are in striking distance of second place in the Horizon League.
Why is a second-place conference finish so important? Because the top two teams get a bye in the Horizon League Tournament (March 10-13) all the way to the semifinal round.
However, there also is not-so-good news for the Penguins (14-6, 5-4).
YSU — one of seven teams in the conference within two games of each other in the standings — is also in a position where it can fall to as low as eighth place with a bad stretch in its final nine games.
“We don’t talk about it a whole lot,” head coach John Barnes said. “There’s just so much season left. Second place is right there, but so is seventh place. So we’re just trying to take it one game at a time. I think that’s the best way with this team. Hopefully we can play well on Thursday and get that win.”
Continuing a four-game homestretch in which the Penguins are 1-1 so far, YSU hosts Oakland on Thursday at 5:15 p.m., before Detroit comes to town on Saturday at 4:30 p.m.
The Penguins currently sit in fourth place in the Horizon League — one game behind Wright State and Milwaukee (both 6-3 in the conference). They have an identical conference record with fifth-place Detroit, while Valparaiso, Northern Kentucky and Oakland are right behind with conference records of 4-5.
Green Bay (18-3, 8-1) sits comfortably atop the conference.
“The Horizon League is a great league to be in,” said Indiya Benjamin, YSU’s sophomore point guard. “Every team in this league is capable of winning on every night. You can’t take any nights off. ...So you have to be on your A-game every single game no matter who you’re playing against.”
When the Penguins tip with Oakland (12-8, 4-5), they’ll be facing a team they already beat once this season. However, the win came all the way back on Nov. 28 — 96-77 at Oakland — so YSU should be in for a more-seasoned Grizzlies team this time.
“When we played them the first time, we had a good game and shot the ball well,” Benjamin said. “We attacked and I don’t think they were as ready as we were. We just wanted it more, so we just have to come with that same mentality because they’re gonna be after us.”
YSU made a school record-tying 16 3-pointers in that contest. Kelsea Newman made eight of them, while Benjamin had 21 points and 13 assists.
Starting with that game, YSU’s offense in conference play has been fine — averaging 71.4 points. However, the Penguins are also allowing the exact same amount of points to their Horizon League opponents.
That number, as well as YSU’s conference opponents shooting 42 percent from the field, has Barnes’ attention.
“We need to play better defense,” he said. “Our defense has been struggling in terms of points allowed. Our rebounding struggled quite a bit earlier, but the last few games we’ve kind of shored that up. But we have to continue to rebound the ball better.
“Overall, I think we just need to be a little stingier on the defensive end. We need to make everything tougher for our opponents.”
On Saturday, Northern Kentucky shot 58 percent and put up 88 points in downing the Penguins, which is the most YSU has allowed to a Horizon League foe so far.
“Our defense is what we work the most on,” Benjamin said. “So if that’s not going well, obviously we’re not gonna play as well. So in practice this week and weeks to follow, we’re just gonna keep going over our defensive techniques and things we need to do defensively to stop teams.SDRq