The Youngstown State women are headed into the hardest part of their schedule, and it got off to a rough start at the Beeghly Center on Thursday.  Loyola built an early ten point lead and never led by less than that until very late in the game, cruising to a 82-77 win over the Lady Penguins.

YSU made it interesting late, but the Ramblers weathered the storm for the win.  When asked if his team may have pulled it out if there were a couple more minutes to play, Coach Bob Boldon remarked, “If it would have went twenty minutes longer, they probably would have scored 100, I’m not sure what we would have ended up with.”

In the first half, Loyola continuously took advantage of an aggressive Penguins defense by working the ball to either wing and throwing cross-court passes to wide open shooters.  Three-point shooting was the key to the Penguins woes on offense in the first half.  YSU shot a dismal 3-18 from long range.  Kelsea Fickiesen hustled for the Penguins  in the first half and seemed to be in a higher gear than her teammates.  Fickiesen had seven rebounds, three on the offensive end, to keep the Penguins in the game.

“We were not getting our shots to fall early on”, said Fickiesen.  “When you shoot and miss a couple of shots, you have to keep shooting.”

In the second half, Loyola’s Monica Albano, who torched the Penguins for over 50 points in two games last season, caught a little fire.  The Penguins did a good job keeping Albano in check with only two first half points.  However, Albano was able to score 15 second half points.  Every time that YSU looked to be making a move, Albano would make a shot or pass that contributed to the lead growing.

The Penguins continued to scratch and claw to that magic ten point barrier but could not get past it. Heidi Schlegel had a nice put back off of an offensive rebound, and then hit a three to cut Loyola’s lead to 50-37 with 14:10 left to go.  With just over nine minutes to go, Monica Touvelle hit a three to pull the Penguins to within ten at 58-48.

Loyola just kept answering everything the Penguins did right on offense with buckets on their next possession, almost on cue.  With 5:07 left, Brandi Brown hit a pair of free throws to keep YSU in the right neighborhood at 69-58.  Typical of the way the night went, the Ramblers scored on their next chance to nullify any Penguin gains.  Simone Law was eating the Penguins alive in the paint.

With the Penguins down 73-60, Brown caught a Kenya Middlebrooks pass on a fastbreak chance and scored.  Loyola again responded when Katie Kortekamp breezed to the hoop for an easy bucket.  Middlebrooks connected on a three with 1:35 left to cut the lead to 77-68.  Fickiesen hit a three with 23.7 left to make it a 79-74 game.

Youngstown State (8-7, 2-2) got 26 points from Brown, including an impressive 12-13 from the free throw line.  Middlebrooks and Touvelle contributed nine points each.

“You can’t make that many mistakes and expect to win”, said Coach Boldon.  “You get what you deserve.  We lost to a very good team, although their record may not show it.  They exploited our defense.  They were very well coached and their offense was significantly better than our defense..”

Loyola (7-9, 2-3) was led by Law who finished with 21 points.  Albano knocked down 17 points.  Troy Hambric had another 12 for the Ramblers.

The Penguins welcome a talented UIC team to Youngstown for a 2:05 game on Saturday.