The Youngstown State University Women’s Basketball Team opened their home schedule on Saturday afternoon.  Working on busting up a 34 game losing streak, the Lady Penguins welcomed IPWF to the Beeghly Center.  The new coaching staff was in place and Bob Boldon knew that the only way to go was up.  Down as many as 14, the Penguins tied the game with four minutes left,  before eventually falling 73-61.

In the first half, the Mastodons took advantage of their size in the low post.  Stephanie Rosado scored 12 points and gathered seven rebounds.  The 6’2″ Junior forward squandered few chances when the ball was in her neck of the woods.  YSU got six points each from Brandi Brown and Maryum Jenkins in the opening half, but as a team, Youngstown State really struggled shooting only 27% from the floor and only hitting two of 13  from three-point range.  Conversely IPFW shot over 40% from the floor to compile a 34-22 lead at the intermission, which was also their biggest lead of the game.

As the second half progressed, the Penguins cut into the twelve-point lead more than once.  With 11:48 left in the game, the Penguins had the lead down to ten as Macey Nortey had a runaway lay up off of a Mastodon turnover. Heidi Schlegel cut it to eight at 51-43 with 8:56 left in the game on a nice cut to the hoop.

At the 6:54 mark, Anne Boese drilled a three to put the Mastodons back up by 10.  The Penguins fought hard to stay in the game, and Brown nailed a three with 5:58 left in the game that suddenly found the Penguins only down three, at 54-51.  Brown hit a drive at the 5:20 mark to cut the lead to just one, and the people made some noise for the home team.  Brown, on a major roll,  kept the hot hand and tied the game at 55 when she followed her own miss for a put back and her 25th point.

IPFW did not roll over or go away.  The Mastodons went on a 7-0 run to take a 64-55 lead with 2:44 left in the game and never looked back.  The Mastodons were paced by Rosado, who tallied 22 points in the victory.  IPFW also got good a game from Jordan Zuppe who had a huge rooting section of her own, and 15 points.

Youngstown State was led  by Brown who finished the game with 29 points, which is a career high, and nine rebounds.  Jenkins and Nortey contributed eight points each.

IPFW, which stands for Indiana and Purdue at Fort Wayne, Indiana, improved to 2-1 on the season.  The Penguins fell to 0-3.  After the game, Coach Boldon addressed the media with the problems plaguing his team. “It’s a new system and I can’t expect us to look perfect.  I can assure you that we will not look perfect against Bucknell on Wednesday.  We didn’t play very good basketball in the first half and we need to get better at every facet of the game.  It’s a work in progress.”

Brown commented on her best-ever game.  “It is a new offense.  Last season I was strictly a post player, whereas this year Coach Boldon trusts everyone on the team to shoot threes. I like the versatility and know that being multi-dimensional is good for the offense.”