The Youngstown State women’s basketball team went on a 20-5 run early in the second half and hung on to defeat Ohio, 55-47, on Friday evening at the Convocation Center.  The Penguins hit 10 of their first 13 shots in the second half and outshot the Bobcats 43.5 percent to 31.1 percent in the game.  YSU improves to 5-4 while Ohio drops to 3-5. The Penguins defeated the Bobcats for the third straight time, and YSU has now won four straight road games for the first time since the 1999-2000 season.

YSU’s Heidi Schlegel (above) scored a game-high and team-high 21 points, and both Liz Hornberger and Schlegel hit three triples apiece.  Brandi Brown was held to eight points, ending a stretch of 29 straight games with at least 10 points.  Tenishia Benson had 14 points to lead Ohio.

Youngstown State built a 24-22 lead at halftime, and the Penguins took a 44-29 lead after back-to-back 3-pointers from Schlegel.  Macey Nortey then hit a lay-up to make the score 46-32 with 10:51 left, but YSU cooled down and had to rely on its defense for the rest of the period.  Ohio scored the next seven points to cut the margin to 46-39 on Benson’s back-door basket with 8:19 left.  Schlegel ended a four-and-a-half minute scoring drought for YSU with two free-throws at the 6:20 mark, and Ohio’s first points in four minutes made the score 48-42.

Youngstown State played a sluggish first half in which they committed 13 turnovers and saw two of its top three scorers go scoreless, but the Penguins led 24-22 at the break. YSU was 6-for-13 from 3-point range in the opening period, but it was just 3-for-12 inside the arc.

Schlegel scored all seven of her first-half points in-a-row for YSU, and her 3-pointer at the 6:23 mark gave YSU an 18-14 advantage. That sparked a 9-0 run for the Penguins, which was capped by another Hornberger 3-pointer that made the score 24-16 with 3:42 remaining.

Ohio’s last lead came at 14-13 with 7:25 remaining in the first half, and YSU led for all but 17 seconds in the second half.

After an eight-day break for finals week, Youngstown State will wrap-up its MAC tour with a game at Akron on Dec. 18. Tipoff against the Zips is set for 2 p.m.