Sunday, January 29, 2017
By Greg Gulas
YOUNGSTOWN
Heading into Saturday’s Horizon League basketball game with Milwaukee, the Youngstown State women were able to end two previous three-game losing streaks at Beeghly Center.
But after suffering a 78-74 loss to the Panthers on Saturday, they’ll have to look to an upcoming four-game road trip to put an end to what has now become their longest slide of the season.
Steph Kostowicz had 22 points and 12 rebounds, Jenny Linder added 20 points and the Panthers placed four players in double figures in extending YSU’s losing streak to four games. In the process, they ended an eight-game losing streak against the Penguins.
Sie Ford-Washington (18 points) and Bailey Farley (12) also reached double figures for Milwaukee.
“I was proud of the kids for fighting as hard as they could. We gave ourselves a chance despite everything that has happened. I’m proud of them for that,” YSU head coach John Barnes said. “Morgan Olson is about 5-foot-10 and that’s who we have to play in the post right now. Tamira [Ford] is maybe 5-11 and it makes it really tough for us to keep opponents out of the paint.”
With just nine healthy scholarship players remaining due to those injuries — most recently a sprained ankle suffered by starter Mary Dunn in a loss to Green Bay on Thursday — the Penguins looked more like the M*ASH 4077th than a team that should be enjoying the stretch run of their season.
Forced into her first starting assignment, Olson responded by scoring a career-high 20 points and grabbing four rebounds in 22 minutes.
She entered the game having scored just 38 points in 19 previous appearances.
“We just have to go out there, work as hard as we can and play smart. Give it your all every second,” Olson said. “At the end of the game we were just trying to push hard and come back. A lot of these games we’ve gotten into a hole and in the end, we came back and fought and it’s been really close. We just need to put it all together and make sure we’re playing all of the minutes just as hard as the last few minutes of the game.”
Milwaukee raced to an early 15-9 advantage, but two free throws by Indiya Benjamin and a bucket by Olson as time expired pulled the Penguins (7-14, 3-7) to within 18-15 heading to the second quarter of play.
A hoop by Benjamin at 7:44 of the second gave YSU its only lead at 21-20, only to see it dissipate 32 seconds later when Milwaukee went on a 13-0 run for a 33-21 margin.
The Panthers, who outscored the Penguins 42-22 in the paint and held a 14-8 edge in points off turnovers, held YSU scoreless over a 6:12 stretch in the period as they built a 33-26 halftime edge.
YSU then used a 7-0 run to cut the deficit to 47-43 with 37 seconds remaining, but a bucket and two free throws by Lindner extended the Milwaukee lead to 51-43 with 10 minutes remaining.
A triple by Smolinski and two free throws by Benjamin cut the margin to 53-48 at the 7:58 mark and when they duplicated that feat with 59 seconds remaining, YSU pulled to within 70-63.
Smolinski, who nailed five 3-pointers in the game, also finished with 20 points for YSU. Benjamin added 10 points and a team-high nine assists.
“I think we all just really needed to step up and it’s sad that we step up when we need to and we are down. We need to start doing that throughout the whole game,” Smolinski said. “I feel like we’d have a good take or a good shot, they’d score a couple times and then we’d have another shot or two. We can’t just keep going back and forth, we need to get stops. We need to work on that for sure.”
Three free throws by Smolinski capped a 19-4 run by YSU and pulled the Penguins to within 74-71 with 17 seconds left, but two free throws each by Lindner and Ford-Washington offset a triple by Melinda Trimmer to close the scoring.