43
Penguins are proud of toughness following loss
By STEVE WILAJ
YOUNGSTOWN
Following Thursday’s 69-35 beatdown at Green Bay and with last Saturday’s trip to Milwaukee looming, the Youngstown State women’s team listed all of its excuses it could use for a poor performance against the Panthers.
“We talked how easy it would be to just say, ‘Well we’re on the road, here’s another tough game, Indiya [Benjamin’s] not healthy, Janae [Jackson’s] out,’” third year coach John Barnes said at Monday’s press conference. “Basically, to just sit back and let a loss happen.”
“But it just showed the toughness of the team and how much they wanted to win.”
Indeed, the Penguins (16-8, 7-6 Horizon League) bounced back for a crucial eight-point victory to remain in the middle of the conference-standings pack. They sit in fifth place behind Milwaukee (7-5 HL), Detroit (8-5), Wright State (9-3) and far-off Green Bay (11-1).
With five regular season games remaining, next up is a matchup with Cleveland State (5-18, 2-11) at Beeghly Center on Saturday at 1 p.m.
First, though, YSU has a bigger priority in its week off before trying to avenge its Jan. 16 loss to the Vikings: getting healthy.
“It couldn’t have happened at a better time,” Barnes said of the extended break between games. “Indiya got hurt really bad against Green Bay and pretty much sat from the first quarter on and didn’t play at all after that.
“So this gives us a chance to heal up those injuries and gives those players a chance to be at full strength — or as close to it as possible — for the weekend.”
Benjamin, YSU’s starting sophomore point guard, has been battling an ankle injury for the past month or so. She played just 14 minutes against the Phoenix before going scoreless with six assists in 21 minutes at Milwaukee.
Benjamin, who’s averaging nine points and 5.3 assists per game, also tweaked her ankle in a Feb. 6 home loss to Detroit.
“It’s just one of those things that it’s gonna be there the rest of the season,” Barnes said. “Whatever you do, it’s gonna be there. You just hope she doesn’t land on someone’s foot and tweak it again.”
Another starter, Jackson, is battling an ankle injury as well. The senior forward who’s averaging eight points and 5.3 rebounds per game suffered her injury in the Detroit contest on Feb. 6 and missed the past two games.
“She’s still day-to-day,” Barnes said. “She’s getting better and we’re hoping for the best. But we don’t want to bring her out too early and have her re-injure it.”
YSU’s bench did well at Milwaukee in making up for the two starter’s ailment’s. The Penguins reserves combined for 30 points, with junior guard Jenna Hirsch notching 15 points and freshman guard Allison Smolinski adding 13 points.
“It was huge,” Barnes said. “Jenna played the game of the season for her. She’s very capable of doing that and we’ve kind of been waiting for that breakout game for her. I have no doubts she’ll continue right where she left off and play well from here on out. With Indiya being hurt, that was big.
“Allison was kind of back to her self and made a bunch of shots. ...We need that.”
The Penguins struggled to make shots in the fourth quarter of their 75-68 upset loss at Cleveland State earlier this season.
They were outscored 23-14 in the period, while they were outrebounded 42-32 for the entire game.
“Cleveland State played really well and made a lot of shots and did a good job on the offensive rebounds,” Barnes said. “So we have to box out better. But we also need to get healthy. That’s important for our team.”