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YSU women’s basketball earns postseason bid
By Steve Wilaj
YOUNGSTOWN
The Youngstown State women’s basketball season is not over, thanks to the Women’s Basketball Invitational.
Earning the right to play in a postseason tournament for the third time in the last four years, the Penguins will host Stony Brook on Wednesday at 7:05 p.m. at Beeghly Center in the opening round.
“We’re very excited,” head coach John Barnes said Monday. “Anytime you can qualify for postseason play and extended the season, it’s a great feeling.
“I’m happy for Janae [Jackson] — our only senior — and the rest of the team.”
YSU is playing in the the WBI — a 16-team tournament played on campus sites — for the first time. This postseason comes after appearances in the Women’s NIT in 2013 and 2015, making this the first time in program history that the Penguins will play in the postseason three times in a four-season span.
Stony Brook’s head coach is Youngstown State Athletics Hall of Fame member Caroline McCombs, who was a starter on YSU’s NCAA Tournament teams in 1996 and 1998.
“They have some good power forwards and some players that can shoot the basketball,” Barnes said Stony Brook (17-14). “So it’s gonna be a challenge.
“Any team that’s in the postseason has to be pretty decent.”
YSU enters the WBI with a 19-12 record, one victory away from the 11th 20-win season in program history.
The Penguins were the No. 6 seed in last week’s Horizon League Tournament, beating Oakland in the opening round before falling to Wright State in the quarterfinals.
“I thought we did a great job against Oakland,” Barnes said. “And then I’m not so sure we were quite ready for the intensity and level that our second game was gonna be at.
“So we learned a valuable lesson from that game and hopefully we can take that lesson into this tournament and win some games.”
The Seawolves are playing in the WBI for the second straight season, both of which have come with McCombs as their head coach.
YSU and Stony Brook have played twice previously in a home-and-home series in the 2011-12 and 2012-13 seasons. Stony Brook beat YSU, 54-47, in New York on Dec. 27, 2011, and the Penguins evened the series with a 76-43 win in Youngstown on Nov. 30, 2012.
The winner of Wednesday’s matchup will advance to play either UMBC or Fairfield.