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Cash, Dunn lift YSU women to an easy home win
Cash, Dunn
lift women
to an easy
home win
By Greg Gulas
YOUNGSTOWN
Sarah Cash scored a game-high 24 points, Mary Dunn added 22 and Alison Smolinski 14 to pace Youngstown State to a 73-55 win over Cleveland State in Horizon League action Saturday at Beeghly Center.
It was YSU’s third consecutive victory and eighth in 10 outings. The Penguins (15-5, 7-2 Horizon League) raced to an early 12-0 lead, never trailed and outrebounded CSU 41-24.
Offensively, it was Cash’s best performance in seven career outings against the Vikings (7-13, 4-5), easily outdistancing the 19-point effort she registered at CSU on Jan. 16, 2016.
“I just felt like I hadn’t been finishing that well the last couple games, so I stayed after practice yesterday and worked with Emma [VanZanten] on finishing more around the basket and I think that helped,” Cash said. “I was just looking to be aggressive and her helping me really worked out in the game.”
Cash scored eight of the Penguins’ first 12 points as YSU raced to an early 17-7 advantage. Only once thereafter, when Savanna Crockett’s bucket 22 seconds later cut the YSU lead to 17-9, did the Penguins’ lead fall below 10 points.
“The team did a really nice job of boxing out and being physical,” YSU head coach John Barnes said. “They have some very good, athletic players that can slash and get to the ball. I thought Amara [Chikwe] and our whole front line, and obviously McKenah [Peters] who had 10 rebounds today got after it.
“I’m very happy and proud of them because that team outrebounds their opponents on a regular basis.”
A 7-2 YSU run to close the quarter helped the Penguins open a 24-11 lead heading to the second frame.
Dunn scored YSU’s first eight points of the second period, finishing with 12 in the opening half as the Penguins built a 44-27 halftime cushion.
“Rebounding is something that we always focus on,” Dunn said. “In past years we’ve struggled with that so this year we really focused on it. Today, to win the game, we knew that we had to win the rebounding battle.
“Me personally, and our whole team, we knew that we needed to add something to our game and that’s a big reason for our success.”
Eight points by Dunn and four more from Cash then helped YSU open a 59-41 lead heading to the final 10 minutes.
Cash finished her day by scoring seven of YSU’s final 10 points.
The Penguins’ defense finished with an 11-1 advantage on second chance opportunities, the offense owned a 50-36 advantage in the paint while the Penguin bench outscored the Vikings’ bench, 26-4.
“We just needed to make sure that when the shot goes up that we get the rebound and not give them any second chance points,” Cash said. “We play good defense and no team wants to play defense for another 30 seconds.”
The Penguins were 29 of 56 from the field (51.8 percent). They held Vikings to just 38.1 percent (24 of 63).
Mariah White led CSU with 17 points, Crockett added 15 and Mariah Miller had a double-double with 13 points and 10 rebounds.
The Vikings lost their second consecutive game and fifth in their last seven outings as they fell to 2-9 this season on the road.
The Penguins improved to 11-1 at home and 3-0 on their current five-game homestand.
BIG SHOTS
At halftime, Nick Krohn of Boardman was selected for the Burgan Real Estate Mortgage Mania Challenge, needing to make a layup, 3-pointer and half-court shot in 30 seconds for a chance to win $12,000.
He made the layup and 3-point shot for $200, then rushed to mid-court to get off his final attempt.
Krohn made the shot and YSU will now submit video footage of that attempt to Patrick Burgan, sponsor of the promotion, on Monday.
Burgan in turn will submit the footage to his insurer to determine Krohn beat the clock or if his foot was over the line.