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Cash out: YSU likely to lose another player
youngstown
The Youngstown State women’s basketball team is fighting battles on the court and the training room as injuries continue to be the story of the season for the Penguins.
YSU (4-10, 0-3, Horizon League) already lost Nikki Arbanas and Kelsea Newman to ACL injuries, and now will likely be sitting Sarah Cash the rest of the year, seeking a medical redshirt.
“She hurt her knee this summer and took a lot of time to let it heal,” YSU head coach John Barnes said. “She went back to practice, but it was still hurting so she had arthroscopic surgery on it, came back but is still in pain. So the only thing that can help her is giving her a lot of time off.”
In addition, two other players, Alison Smolinski and Izzy Meese are out as well. Smolinski is in concussion protocol after suffering a knock at Wright State this past Thursday. Barnes said he wasn’t sure when she would be back. Meese has a sprained ankle.
“We’re trying to focus on the little things and getting the younger players better,” Barnes said. “They’re getting a ton of time. A huge bright spot has been Morgan Brunner. She’s done an unbelievable job going from not playing at all to getting 15 minutes a game lately.”
The injury situation isn’t bad enough to start pulling kids out of rec-league classes to put on the team, but three games in five days will be a challenge for the 11 available players at the moment.
“I’ve tried to find some coaches that have gone through this,” Barnes said. “Every coach has gone through their top kid getting injured or maybe their top two. But not four.”
The Penguins are still looking for their first conference win as they welcome UIC (3-12, 0-4), Valparaiso (5-10, 0-4) and Cleveland State (7-7, 2-1) into town.
“UIC just played Green Bay very tough,” Barnes said. “It was a close game throughout. They’re very athletic, they can put on a lot of pressure and they like to transition, which can give us problems.
“Valpo is more like us in terms of what they do and Cleveland State we already played a really tight game with so hopefully being at home we can have a chance. They’re all teams we think we can compete with.”
Barnes said the team is close to breaking through. YSU narrowly lost at Northern Kentucky in overtime Saturday.
“I don’t know if I should be excited about competing and being there in games or disappointed because we’re not getting wins,” Barnes said.
Defense has been the biggest challenge for the Penguins. YSU is giving up 74.1 points per game and guard Indiya Benjamin said the team must get back to the defense the Penguins have showed the past couple of years.
“Defense is the main reason we’ve been so good in past years,” Benjamin said. “Not being as good is hurting us a lot. We’ve got to focus more on defense and then the offense will come to us.”