Sunday, January 17, 2016
Penguins’ shooting
cools in second half
By MARTY GITLIN
CLEVELAND
Everything pointed to a victory for the Youngstown State women’s basketball team Saturday at Cleveland State.
The Penguins entered with a record of 12-3 and had won six of their last eight. The Vikings were 3-11 and had not tasted victory in a month.
YSU arrived had just one loss in the Horizon League. CSU was winless. The outcome seemed to be a foregone conclusion.
That’s why they play the game.
When the last second ticked off the clock, Youngstown State was officially the victim of the upset of the year in the Horizon League. Final score: Vikings 75, Penguins 68.
Most stunning was that all the drama had drained away after a fantastic finish appeared inevitable. YSU (12-4, 3-2) either couldn’t make a shot down the stretch or committed one of its 18 turnovers. The result was a 14-4 blitz by CSU (4-11, 1-4), which simply paraded to the foul line in the final minute to ice its biggest triumph of the season.
Such a stunner seemed impossible after the Penguins bolted to a 10-2 lead. But it was no surprise considering that they thereafter could not get into the flow of their offense, partly due to the athleticism and pressure of the Vikings and greatly due to their inability to make crisp passes and hang on to the ball.
They also allowed 16 offensive rebounds. That only translated into 11 second-chance points for Cleveland State, but it prevented them from running any semblance of a fast-break.
“Those were two main things we talked about all week,” lamented YSU coach John Barnes. “We struggled to block out and we didn’t take care of the ball. That’s how you get beat. They forced us into not playing well. They’re a lot better than their record.”
The Penguins couldn’t consistently work the ball into 6-foot-1 forward Sarah Cash, who hit seven of eight shots for a team-high 19 points, but managed only one attempt in the fourth quarter.
“I had a hard time because they were playing defense differently than anyone we’ve seen this year,” Cash said. “They were facing me in front and they were getting a lot of help from the weak side, so it was hard for us to lob it in.”
Barnes added that the problem working it into Cash was also the result of poor outside shooting that allowed the defense to concentrate on defending close to the basket.
“Eventually if you’re not making shots, they just plug it up,” he said. “We were 3-of-15 on 3-pointers in the second half. They just kept getting tighter and tighter and tighter on [Cash] and there was nothing we could do.”
Meanwhile, YSU guard Nikki Arbanas was a mere 1-for-11 from the field and missed a rushed 3-point attempt with 1:15 remaining and her team down 70-66. She misfired on all seven tries from beyond the arc after entering at a strong 37.5 percent in that department.
The game remained close after Cleveland State, which was led by talented Ashanti Abshaw (23 points) narrowed its early deficit and took its first lead at 18-17 on a 3-pointer by sub Nicolete Newman. The Penguins threatened to pull away twice, mainly due to the heroics of sophomore guard Kelly Wright. She drained two foul shots to stretch the lead to 44-37, then nailed back-to-back bombs to give YSU a 64-59 lead with 4:50 left. But her team managed just one more basket before garbage time.
“We need our best shooters to make shots,” Barnes said. “And we need our point guards to take care of the ball.”
Their best shooters did not make shots. Their point guards did not take care of the ball. And because it, the Penguins did not win a game most assumed they would.