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YSU women excited about WNIT opportunity.
Penguins grateful
for extended season
By Brian Dzenis
YOUNGSTOWN
After a long wait, the Youngstown State women’s basketball team knows where its next game is.
Around 8 p.m. Monday night, the team learned it was in the Women’s National Invitation Tournament. Two hours and 40 minutes later, the Penguins learned they were travelling to face the Cincinnati Bearcats.
The wait came even though tournament organizers had an early start to sorting out its bracket because the bracket to the women’s NCAA tournament had leaked hours before it was set to be revealed.
“When we saw they were [backing up the announcement], we were like, ‘Ugh’ and just sighing,” Penguins guard Melinda Trimmer said. “As soon as we saw we were in, it was worth it.”
The Penguins and Bearcats will face off at 7 p.m. Thursday, marking YSU’s first game since a 55-53 loss to Green Bay in the Horizon League tournament semifinals on March 11.
“This isn’t the tournament we wanted, but it’s a good one to fall back on,” Trimmer said. “We’re happy to get back on the court and finish the season on a strong note.”
The Penguins (22-9) passed the time as if it were the summer time instead of before a tournament.
“It seemed like the longest nine or 10 days of the season. We were able to get some rest,” Barnes said. “We were able to get back to some basics and fundamentals that we haven’t really been able to cover in a while because we had so many games at the end of the conference season, which was good.”
Cincinnati (21-10) enters the tournament coming off a strong performance in conference play. Three of its four American Athletic Conference losses were to NCAA-bound Central Florida and Connecticut — a women’s basketball powerhouse.
“They’re very good. They have an outstanding point guard [Antoinette Miller]. She shoots it. She dishes it. She takes care of it. They have a very good post player [Ilmar’i Thomas] that shoots 61 percent overall, which is outstanding and they have guards around them that are really athetic.”
Thomas is the Bearcats’ leading scorer at 13.4 points and is the team’s top rebounder at 7.3 rebounds and Miller isn’t far behind in the scoring department at 12.7 points.
Cincinnati isn’t a very tall team with Miller measuring 5-foot-10 and the Bearcats’ other starting forward, Angel Rizer, is 6-0.
That bodes well for Penguin forwards Sarah Cash and Mary Dunn, who are looking to bounce back from a performance where they combined for four points in the Horizon League semifinals.
“We’ll obviously try to get the ball inside more in this game. They’re strong, but don’t have the size. We’ll look to create some mismatches,” Barnes said.
“Overall, we’re going to have to play our best game. They’re 14-2 at home this year and they obviously play very good there. We’re excited for the challenge and we’re going to enjoy every minute of it.”