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No. 2 seed possible for YSU women
Penguins finish
at NKU, WSU
By STEVE WILAJ
YOUNGSTOWN
Just a week remains in Youngstown State’s regular season and, believe it or not, the Penguins — in fifth place in the Horizon League standings — are still in position to grab the No. 2 seed for the conference tournament.
Of course, YSU is aware it is two games behind second-place Milwaukee with just two games to go. But is it concerned with the fact?
“Basically, you just want to be playing your best basketball going into the tournament,” third-year Penguins coach John Barnes said. “So we’re just going to keep improving and trying to win games.
“The second seed would obviously be fantastic, but we’re not gonna worry too much about that. We’ll just focus on the game in front of us and try to get that.”
And that next game for YSU (18-9, 9-7) is at Northern Kentucky (16-11, 8-8) on Thursday at 7 p.m.
The Penguins sit one game behind Detroit and Wright State, who are both 10-6 in the conference. YSU finishes its season at Wright State on Sunday at 1 p.m., so should the Penguins take care of its business and Milwaukee stumble, the two-seed — which comes with a double-bye along with top-seeded Green Bay (15-1) — is within reach.
But more on Barnes’ mind is that YSU — winners of three of its last four games — stays hot.
“We’ve kind of had games where we played great and games where we haven’t,” he said. “I feel like we’re getting more consistent at the end of the year. We’re getting healthy again, so we just want to continue to try to win games.”
It’s something the Penguins didn’t do on Jan. 30 against Northern Kentucky, as the Norse walked into Beeghly Center and — led largely by former Penguins point guard Shar’Rae Davis (16 points) — downed YSU, 88-77.
However, YSU starters Indiya Benjamin (22 points on Sunday vs. UIC) and Janae Jackson weren’t particularly healthy for that contest (both have battled ankle injuries). But they’re both near full strength now, which Barnes said should make a difference.
“I thought they were the aggressive team against us, in terms of really attacking,” he said. “And Janae and Indiya are probably our two best players in terms of being able to attack the basket and make things happen. So having those two back is really good for us.
“NKU is very good on their home floor, but we’re just focused on ourselves and will try to continue really good defensive efforts.”
Northern Kentucky shot 58 percent in the first contest, but the way YSU has been playing defense lately, that number may shrink considerably.
In their past four games, the Penguins have allowed just 55.5 points per game.
“We’ve kind of got back to basics and played the kind of defense we played during the whole beginning of the season,” Barnes said. “Even when you don’t shoot well, you can still win those games if you’re playing good D. ... Northern Kentucky is a very talented team all-around, so they’re gonna challenge us to say the least.”