Cash’s 23 points help Penguins top UIC

Staff report

CHICAGO

Sarah Cash scored 23 points and the Youngstown State women’s basketball team led for more than 36 minutes in a 69-64 victory over Illinois-Chicago on Thursday night at the UIC Pavilion.

The Penguins snapped a two-game losing streak and improved to 13-4 overall and 4-2 in Horizon League play. UIC fell to 9-9 and 0-7 in the conference.

Indiya Benjamin added 11 points, and she had seven of YSU’s 21 assists. Nikki Arbanas added 10 points, and she made three of the Penguins’ 10 3-pointers.

Ruvanna Campbell had 16 points and 15 rebounds to lead the Flames, who were plus-19 in rebounding margin and converted 24 offensive rebounds into 26 second-chance points.

The only time the Penguins trailed in the game was 2-0, and they scored the next seven points to go up 7-2 four minutes into the game. YSU led by five on five other occasions in the first period, and the Penguins extended their lead to nine, 32-23, on a Kelsea Newman 3-pointer with four minutes left before halftime.

Cash scored 11 points in the first half, and YSU had 11 assists on 14 field goals. Campbell had nine points for UIC, which scored 20 of its 29 first-half points in the paint.

UIC scored the first points of the third period to get within four, but Arbanas hit the first of four Penguin triples in the period to push the lead back to seven. YSU’s first double-digit lead of the game lead came when a Cash basket made the score 45-35, and the largest lead, 53-38, came on another Cash bucket with 4:13 left in the period.

But YSU didn’t score for more than six minutes, and UIC scored the next 10 points to get within 56-48 with 9:30 left. Alison Smolinski stopped the spurt with a 3-pointer, YSU’s 10th of the night, with 8:18 left to put the Penguins up 56-48.

YSU led by 10 twice more, the final time at 62-52 with 6:33 remaining, before another scoring lull allowed UIC to close the gap. The Flames trailed just 63-59 after a Cate Soane bucket with 1:40 left.

Cash made two free throws to push the lead to six, and her bucket from Benjamin with 54 seconds remaining put YSU up 67-60.

YSU conclude its three-game road stretch at Valparaiso on Saturday.

Tipoff at the Athletics-Recreation Center is set for 2:30 p.m.