One of the best teams on the Youngstown State Lady Penguins schedule this season is Bowling Green.  Tuesday, the Falcons rolled into town and faced a very determined Penguins team.  In a gutsy showing, the Penguins fell 73-61 to the Falcons, but the game was very competitive until BG pulled away at the end.

“I was disappointed with our free throw effort tonight”, said Penguins Coach Bob Boldon.  “I thought we played with good energy, just not long enough.  We played terrible defense the last five minutes and did not deserve to win.”

In the first half, Bowling Green asserted a pretty good size height advantage.  Alexis Rogers and Brandi Brown (both pictured above) are both All-American potential players.  Rogers had  strong first half with 14 points and seven rebounds.  Brown had to play cautiously and had three fouls by intermission.  The Eagles showed good balance working the ball inside and out as they held a 32-27 lead at the break.

The Lady Penguins worked hard to stay close to the Falcons in the second half. Kelsea Fickiesen hit a pair of free throws to make it a 42-39 game.  Brown then gathered an offensive rebound and tallied a put-back to trim the deficit to one point.  Devan Matkin gave the Penguins a two-point lead, 46-44, at the 13:04 mark when she drilled a three on the right wing.

Brown drilled a three with just over nine minutes left in the game to give YSU a 55-54 lead.  She later got to the line with 5:45 left in the game and hit two free throws to keep YSU at arms length of the lad, at 60-59.  However, the Falcons got a couple of buckets to take a 66-59 lead with 3:57 left.

“We have grown a lot”, said Brown.  “We aren’t focusing on competing like we were last year, we are now focused on winning games.  We did not play a full 40 minutes and lacked energy and intensity.”

The Penguins (4-4) got 15 points out of Kenya Middlebrooks (above).  The senior has been a consistent contributor on offense all season for the Penguins thus far.  Brown finished the game with 15 points and seven rebounds.  YSU got solid bench play, something Coach Boldon has strived to improve on this season.  The Penguins reserves poured in 23 points.

Bowling Green got a big night out of Rogers who finished the game with 23 points and 10 rebounds.  Chrissy Steffen chipped in with 20 for the Falcons (5-2).  As a team, Bowling Green shot 41% from the floor.

The Penguins now head to Athens to take on the Bobcats of Ohio University on Friday.  As a good mark of just how much better this team is, the Penguins defeated Western Michigan by 25 last week, their first 20+ point win since 2006.  Conversely, since that 2006 win over Buffalo, the Penguins lost 46 times by more than 20.