Kent State women halt YSU’s winning streak
Kent State’s aggressive defense, physical play
turn Penguins’ shooting ice cold at MAC Center
By BOB ETTINGER
KENT
Having won four straight to open the season, the Youngstown State women’s basketball team may have started to feel like nothing could wrong. The Penguins found out that not only something could go wrong, but everything could go wrong, and it could do so in a hurry as they dropped a 62-34 decision to Kent State at the MAC Center on Tuesday evening.
“I just think we were on a high being 4-0,” sophomore guard McKenah Peters said. “We can’t come out like that. Kent State shot the lights out early in the game. We need to push that.”
The Penguins fell behind 15-5 through the end of the first period behind a 2-fo-17 (11.8 percent) shooting spell and it would be a sign of what was to come.
“[Poor shooting] was a big problem, too,” YSU coach John Barnes said. “Layups weren’t falling, 3s weren’t falling. Nothing was falling. A lot of that has to do with the defense. [Kent State] is long and they’re physical. Everything snowballed until the end when we hit a few shots.”
The Golden Flashes were 5 of 11 (45.5 percent) from the field and knocked 3 of 5 3-pointers in those first 10 minutes.
“I really don’t know [how to explain the first quarter],” Barnes said. “I felt Kent State did a great job at the start. They were super aggressive and they were super physical. Usually, we’re physical ourselves. We weren’t tonight. We got pushed around.”
Those shooting woes continued throughout the contest for the Penguins as they connected on just 17.2 percent (11 of 64) of their attempts. Those struggles were compounded by Kent State’s ability to knock down its shots from the perimeter.
“We didn’t play too defense too badly,” Peters said. “We just needed to come out better on the other end. You can look at the positive and say we played decent defense. They just shot the ball really well.”
The Golden Flashes were 10 of 24 (41.7 percent) from beyond the arc and 22 of 58 (37.9) overall.
“They were 7 for 11 in the first half on 3-pointers,” Barnes said. “Them making everything and us struggling was a recipe for a tough game. There are games you have to have the defense pull you through.”
Peters can’t wait to get back on the floor so the Penguins can put the loss in the rear-view mirror.
“I’m excited to get ready for Yale,” Peters said. “We can take this two ways. We can hang our heads, or we can come out ready to play.”
YSU will host the Bulldogs at 7 p.m. Friday.
“It was a long night all the way around,” Barnes said. “I’m glad we only have a couple-days’ turnaround. We’ll try to learn from it, but also forget it.”