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YSU women rally past Oakland
By Steve WILAJ
YOUNGSTOWN
If Youngstown State women’s coach John Barnes is bald by season’s end, he won’t be surprised. He realizes why — the Penguins’ knack for close games — and he lets his team know about it.
“Yeah, he says that when we get into the locker room every time — that we’re balding him,” guard Nikki Arbanas said with a laugh.
Thursday against Oakland, it was another bad game for Barnes’ hair. However, it was another good ending for YSU.
Fighting back from a 14-point third quarter deficit, the Penguins escaped with a 67-63 win at Beeghly Center. YSU improved to 15-6 overall and 6-4 in the Horizon League as it outscored the Grizzlies (12-9, 4-6) by 11 points in the final quarter.
“It seems like it’s been this way all year,” said Barnes, who joked his hair “fell out” during the contest. “A lot of fall-behind, comebacks and close games. I would love some easy ones, but I don’t think it’s meant to be for this team.”
YSU won despite going scoreless for a stretch of 12 minutes and 27 seconds between the second and third quarters. Sarah Cash led the Penguins with 22 points and a career-high 14 rebounds, while Nikki Arbanas added 18 points and Kelsea Newman scored 15.
“We just have to keep shooting because eventually the shots will fall,” Cash said. “We have too many great shooters, so we knew if we just kept shooting, eventually they’d go in.”
Trailing by seven points entering the fourth quarter, YSU — using a three-guard lineup of Arbanas, Indiya Benjamin and Melinda Trimmer — used an 8-0 run in the opening two minutes to tie the contest.
The Penguins then took a 55-53 lead on Arbanas’ 3-pointer at the 4:50 mark and never trailed again. Moments later at the 2:05 mark, Arbanas hit another 3 -- her sixth and final of the game -- to stretch YSU’s lead to 64-57.
“The two 3’s in the fourth, we ran the same play,” Arbanas said. “I screen for Sarah and either she’ll get the layup or I’ll get the 3 depending on who they help on. They happened to be helping on her, so I was open for the shots.”
Said Barnes: “Nikki saved us.”
Oakland fought back, though, using a 6-0 spurt to trim the Penguins’ lead to 64-63 with 32 seconds remaining. But YSU finally closed it out with two Newman free throws and a missed 3 by Oakland’s Elena Popkey with five seconds left.
The Grizzlies led 36-29 at halftime and opened the third quarter on an 8-1 run to stretch its lead to 14 points. Still, YSU trailed just 45-38 after three quarters — somehow, some way.
In the third quarter alone, the Penguins shot only 1 of 14 from the field and committed seven turnovers. They missed their first 12 shots before a Cash putback at 1:20 mark. Cash also went 5 of 6 at the foul line in the third, while YSU shot 7 of 8 on free throws as a team to keep itself in the game.
“We were getting the ball into Sarah and she was getting some good looks, but she just wasn’t making them,” Barnes said. “But our defense kind of saved us in the second half.”
While YSU shot just 33 percent, the Penguins held the Grizzlies to 37 percent from the field — including just 30 percent in the second half.
“It’s unfortunate that we realize it when we’re down and knowing that we need to come back in order to win,” Arbanas said. “But I think that’s what kind of sparked us.”
YSU hosts Detroit on Saturday at 4:35 p.m.