Smolinski, Cash lead Penguins past Saint Francis

December 9, 2018 at 12:08a.m.

YOUNGSTOWN

Alison Smolinski shot her way out of a slump because she had to.

Smolinski built on her 29-point performance against Canisius on Dec. 1 with 23 points in the Youngstown State women’s basketball team’s 80-56 win against the Red Flash on Saturday. She has her shooting stroke back after she shot 2 for 13 from three in the two games leading up to the Canisius contest.

“I felt like I had no choice but to play well,” Smolinski said. “As a senior, you have to step up. It’s my last ride and I keep reminding myself of that. I don’t want to have any regrets.”

YSU (7-2) continued its run of good form with a third consecutive win and 600th in program history. The Penguins are getting some recognition nationally as they’ve received some votes in the College Insider Mid-Major Top 25 poll.

“We’ve really been focusing on our defense and shutting down [our opponents’] best players,” Lordstown native and YSU forward Sarah Cash said.

Cash reached double figures for the fourth consecutive game with 20 points.

“I thought it was a quiet 20 points. She is just so unselfish and so efficient. She took 10 shots and made seven of them. She’s six of seven from the line and that’s being efficient,” YSU coach John Barnes said. “I feel like the team did a good job of getting her the ball in good positions to make those shots.”

Saturday’s contest in the Beeghly Center had an inauspicious start with Barnes needing to call a timeout early with the team starting in a 6-0 hole.

“We had a play drawn up to start and the players were not in the right positions and usually, that tells me we’re not ready,” Barnes said. “Usually going from the bench to the court and executing is not difficult and we were trying our best to keep [Saint Francis’ Jess Kovatch and Karson Swogger] from shooting threes and then they shot threes.”

The Penguins fell behind 9-2, but Smolinski hit back-to-back threes to spark a 15-3 run to close out the first quarter. Their lead reached as high as 28 points. Smolinski made six threes on 13 attempts.

“My coaches always tell me to shoot the ball. They went in there and that just gave us the confidence,” Smolinski said. “It was a weird start, but we picked it up and got the W.”

Junior post Mary Dunn put up 13 points and had six rebounds.

Kovatch led the Red Flash with 19 points and Swogger finished with 10 points.

The Penguins travel to Bucknell on Dec. 18. The Bison (7-2) are No.9 in the mid-major poll and beat the Penguins, 66-60, last year.

“Their size bothered us last year and the rebounding is tough,” Barnes said.