The Youngstown State University Lady Penguins upheld a tradition that merits special mention.  Donned in pink socks, tape, neckties, laces, and headbands – they made a statement about breast cancer awareness.  Because I have had relatives who fought that form of cancer and won, makes a burly 6′, 250 pound guy a little sappy.  Having lost a couple of loved ones who did not get the cancer detected before the fatal stages makes me remind whoever reads this column to take the awareness portion seriously.  I do.

That being said, the Lady Penguins took to the court to do battle with the Milwaukee Panthers.  This game held significance toward the Penguins chances of possibly hosting a playoff game.  Behind 10 points from Brandi Brown, YSU stormed out to a big lead, blew the big lead in the second half, then regained control.  However, Milwaukee controlled things at the end and turned away the Penguins for a 76-71 win.  YSU had their biggest first half of the season scoring 45, but had their worst conference second half of the season scoring just 26 points.

“There were a lot of possessions where we miscommunicated”, said Coach Bob Boldon.  “When we watch the films we will se five or six possessions where if we could get a stop, the outcome of the game could have been different.  We couldn’t stop anything in the second half though.”

In the first half, Youngstown State darted out to a 45-34 halftime lead.  The Penguins had a lead as big as 13 as Brandi Brown paced the attack with 10.  Liz Hornberger added nine points and Monica Touvelle hit a couple of threes.  Courtney Lindfors had 11 for the Panthers and Sami Tucker had ten more.  YSU took exactly as many shots (11) more than Milwaukee as their margin at the half.  The keys to the big first half were plenty of offensive rebounding and good defense that caused some turnovers.

In the second half, the refs wanted to make sure the metal ball in their whistles didn’t rust, so they blew them frequently calling plenty of fouls.  It got so bad that YSU committed enough fouls with just over 15 minutes to go in the half, that Milwaukee was in a very early one-and-one situation.

Milwaukee used an 18-7 run to catch YSU with 13:05 left in the game and tie things up at 50.  Then it turned into a seesaw game the rest of the way and Milwaukee found themselves ahead 65-62 with 5:13 left.  Hornberger then hit a three to match her career-high in points and making it a tie game again.

Milwaukee again jumped out to a three-point, 72-69 lead, with just over a minute left Lindfors scored from close range.  Kelsea Fickiesen was fouled on the next possession but missed a pair of free throws that would have made it a one point game.  Milwaukee then hit a three to salt the game away, eventually posting a 76-71 win.

Brown finished the game with 18 points for YSU (10-15, 4-10).  Hornberger tied her career high with 12 points and Melissa Thompson had a good game with ten.  The Penguins play their season finale against Green Bay at 2:05 on Saturday.  It will mark the final game for Macey Nortey, Tierra Jones, and Kenya Middlebrooks, three good ones who are almost out of time on the court.

“We are not a tired team”, said Hornberger afterwards.  “We can’t go into a half with an 11 point lead and then come out and take minutes off.  We are not that good of a team to take time off.”

Milwaukee got 18 points each out of Tucker and Lindfors in improving to 6-18, and 3-10 in Horizon League play.