Posts Tagged ‘Brandi Brown’

Milwaukee shot 58 percent and hit seven 3-pointers in the opening period, and the Youngstown State women’s basketball team could never recover despite a strong second-half performance in an 81-66 loss at the Klotsche Center on Thursday.

UWM’s Sami Tucker scored 21 of her career-high 23 points in the first half as Milwaukee built a 51-28 halftime advantage. YSU trimmed the deficit to 15 several times midway through the second half and had the lead down to 68-54 with five minutes remaining. The Penguins never got closer than 14 points.

Brandi Brown finished with 19 points and a game-high 13 rebounds for Youngstown State, which recorded 16 steals. Tieara Jones added 15 points and nine rebounds, and Bojana Dimitrov scored all 10 of her points in the first half.

Tucker was 9-for-11 from the floor in the game and 8-for-9 in the first period. Lindsay Laur was an assist shy of a triple-double, finishing with 11 points, 10 rebounds and nine assists.

Milwaukee cooled down in the second half, shooting 38 percent as the Penguins outscored UWM 38-30 in the final 20 minutes. YSU shot 34.3 percent for the game and was 7-for-26 from 3-point range.

Angela Rodriguez had 15 points behind 6-for-8 shooting, and Courtney Lindfors had 11 points for UWM. Milwaukee finished shooting 10-for-20 from 3-point range as Tucker and Rodriguez combined to go 7-for-9. The Panthers held a 40-32 rebounding advantage after owning a 26-10 edge on the glass in the first period.

YSU led 4-2 early, but two Lindfors free throws and the first of four treys in the period by Tucker gave the Panthers a lead they would never lose. Two more Lindfors free throws put UWM up 24-14 with 10:23 left.  YSU increased its pressure on the ball, and a series of Milwaukee turnovers helped the Penguins trim the deficit to 24-21 with 8:45 remaining. From that point, the Panthers closed out the half by outscoring the Penguins 27-7.

Youngstown State will travel to Green Bay on Saturday to play the first-place Phoenix. Tipoff at the Kress Center is set for 3 p.m. Eastern.

Youngstown State sophomore forward Brandi Brown scored 24 points and had seven rebounds, but Cleveland State shot 54.2 percent from the field and used a big second-half effort to hand the Penguins an 86-65 loss on Saturday afternoon at the Beeghly Center.

With the win, Cleveland State improves to 12-8 overall and 4-4 in the Horizon League. The Penguins are now 3-17 and 1-8.

On the heels of her peformance, Brown has now scored 707 points while grabbing 503 rebounds in her 50-game Penguins career. She is the just the third player in school history to score 700 points and grab 500 rebounds during her sophomore campaign.  Also for the Penguins, Kenya Middlebrooks scored 16 points, 15 of which came in the first half while Bojana Dimitrov had 13.

Both teams had an impressive first half offensively.  YSU shot 53.8 percent making 14-of-26 from the field while connecting on 7-of-16 (43.8 percent) 3-point attempts. CSU made 18-of-34 attempts (52.9 percent), most coming from inside the paint.

The Vikings scored 30 of their 47 points in the paint and held an 8-0 advantage in second-chance points. On the other hand, the Penguins scored 21 points from behind the 3-point arc compared to just six from deep by CSU.  Both teams combined to go 16-19 from the free-throw line as well.

YSU scored the first four points of the game, but following a 8-0 run by the Vikings had to play catch up the remainder of the half. The Guins cut the deficit to 8-7 on a three-point play by Bojana Dimitrov before the Vikings scored the next five to go on top 13-7.  The Penguins tied the game at 13 scoring the next six points, but CSU scored 11 of the next 14 points grabbing a 24-16 advantage at the midway point of the half.

With 5:07 left before halftime, the Guins pulled within 31-29 on a Middlebrooks 3-pointer.

The Vikings scored 30 of their 47 points in the paint and held an 8-0 advantage in second-chance points. On the other hand, the Penguins scored 21 points from behind the 3-point arc compared to just six from deep by CSU.

YSU cut the deficit to 37-36 on a Brown putback at 3:08 and was within 42-39 on a triple by Middlebrooks with a minute to go. The Vikings scored the next five points, but Middlebrooks drained another three just before the buzzer to pull YSU within 47-42 at halftime.

The Vikings scored the first 11 points of the second half and the Penguins could not get back in the game. After falling behind 58-42, YSU was only able to get within 14, at 60-46 on a 3-pointer by Brown at the 16:16 mark.

The Penguins return to the road on Thursday when they visit Milwaukee. Tipoff for the contest between YSU and the Panthers is set for 8 p.m.

The Youngstown State Lady Penguins could only get better was the general feeling coming into this season under first-year coach Bob Boldon. Boldon has taken the stance that, “close but no cigar“, means nothing.  The improvement since last season is obvious and the team is much more competitive and focused.  Saturday, the Penguins played Detroit, team that demolished the Lady Penguins twice last year.  The Titans ended up winning by nine, 66-57, competitive and close but no cigar, yet again.

In the first half, Detroit built big leads on two separate occasions with the largest being nine.  Jalesa Jones (top photo) paced the Titans with nine first half points as Detroit  was ahead 31-26 at the break.  Brandi Brown had eight points and four rebounds for YSU in the half.  The story was shooting percentage in the opening half.  Youngstown State shot almost 35% from the field, but the Titans shot 41.4%.

In the second half, Maryum Jenkins buried a three from the corner with 15:24 left to make it 41-37 in favor of Detroit.  YSU surged even closer when Kenya Middlebrooks hit a three to cut the lead to just one point at 43-42 with 13:01 left in the game.  As the second half rolled along, Detroit gained control of things and had a 55-47 lead with 8:59 to go.

Brown started to heat up and heat a three with 8:04 left to cut the deficit to three points at 55-52.  Tieara Jones fouled out with just over eight minutes to play.  Jones (next picture down) finished with 10 points and seven boards.

Interesting stat of the game, last year the Horizon League chose to award the Newcomer of The Year award to Detroit’s Yar Shayok instead of Youngstown State’s Brandi Brown.  Brown had much better statistics for the season but was passed over when the chalice was awarded.  In their first head-to-head meeting since that award was given, Brown had 18 points and 10 rebounds.  Shayok finished the game with 17 points and 13 rebounds.

With Detroit ahead 51-47, Dominique Dixon, who finished with 15 points,  hit a pair of free throws to extend the Titans lead to 63-57. With just under a minute to go, YSU went into auto-foul mode and Detroit converted enough to keep the Penguins at arms-length.  Jones finished the game with 13 and Shayok had 17.  The Titans evened their record at 9-9 and 3-4 in the conference.

Youngstown State was paced by Brown’s double-double (18 points, 10 boards).  Boki Dimitrov chipped in with 11 points.  The Penguins fell to 3-16, and 1-7 in the Horizon League.

After the game, Coach Boldon talked about the loss.  “Tieara [Jones] played well for us tonight, we really needed her when she fouled out with eight minutes left.  We came out flat in the second half and we are nota good enough team to try to exchange baskets with anyone.”

Youngstown State University looked pretty solid despite dropping a hard-fought contest to Wright State, 64-61.  Brandi Brown scored 23 points for YSU, but the Penguins were not able to get a good shot with six seconds left and fell to 3-16 and 1-7 in the Horizon League.

The first half was pretty much a coin flip with Wright State calling “heads” and guessing properly.  The Raiders took a one point lead into the locker room, 32-31, but the statistics for the opposing teams were not similar.  Wright State held a 23-12 rebounding adantage, while the Penguins enjoyed a 9-3 advantage in steals.  The Raiders got nine boards from Shaunda Sandifer and ten points from Molly Fox. The Penguins got nine points each from Brandi Brown and Kenya Middlebrooks.  It was surprising that the score was so close at the half when Wright State shot nearly 10% better from the floor than YSU.

With 14:34 left in the game, Middlebrooks hit a three to give YSU a 42-37 lead, their largest of the game to that point.  Maryum Jenkins pushed the lead to 49-43 with just under eleven minutes to go in the game when she buried a three.

With 8:47 left in the game, Wright State grabbed their first lead of the second half, 52-51, when LaShawna Thomas hit a couple of baskets for the visitors.  The Penguins would reclaim a one-point lead with 7:27 left when Brandi Brown gathered in a long rebound on the offensive end and dribbled through three Raider defenders like orange cones for a layup. Thomas tied the contest at 57 when she hit one of two free throws with 4:24 left.

After the game, Coach Boldon talked being competitive.  “Yeah, we played well, but it is still a loss. Until we get tired of losing it will not change and it really has to.  We got some good shots, but the last play was not very good, and I take responsibility for that.”

The Penguins got another solid night out of Brandi Brown, who just continually punches her card and works hard until the final whistle has been blown.  Brown’s evening consisted of 23 points and eight rebounds and the reigning Horizon League Player of The Week was just everywhere on both sides of the court.  Kenya Middlebrooks finished with 14 points.

Wright State got a good night from LaShawna Thomas who knocked down 17 points, as did her teammate Molly Fox.  Maria Bennett also chipped in 15 points for the Raiders who improved to 11-6 overall and 4-2 in the Horizon League.

The Penguins tee it up again Saturday against Detroit as part of a mens-womens doubleheader starting at 5.

Youngstown State sophomore forward Brandi Brown has been named Horizon League Women’s Basketball Player of the Week for the week of Jan 10.

Brown notched two double-doubles as the Penguins split a pair of road games last week.  She averaged 25 points and 14 rebounds for the week while shooting 63.6 percent from the field.

The Pomona, Calif., native had a career-high tying 29 points and a season-high 18 rebounds in YSU’s 61-55 victory over Valparaiso. She was 12-for-19 from the field in the contest as she helped Youngstown State snap losing streaks of 39 on the road and 22 in conference play.

On Saturday, Brown overcame early foul trouble to post 21 points and 10 rebounds against Butler.  She was 9-for-14 from the floor against the Bulldogs, including 2-for-2 from 3-point range.

Brown has reclaimed the top ranking among the Horizon League’s scoring leaders. She is averaging 17.65 points per contest, which is just ahead of Wright State guard LaShawna Thomas‘ average of 17.63. Brown also ranks second in the league in rebounding at 9.4 boards per contest.

Brown was also named the Horizon League Player of the Week on Nov. 29.  No other Penguin has been named Horizon League Player of the Week twice in a season since YSU joined the conference in the 2001-02 season. She is that good…

Youngstown State welcomes Wright State on Thursday for a 5:15 p.m. contest. The Penguins then host Detroiton Saturday in a 4:35pm tipoff.

Sophomore Brandi Brown tied her career high with 29 points and the Youngstown State women’s basketball team made some key free throws down the stretch to beat Valparaiso 61-55 on Thursday night at the Athletics Recreation Center.

The win on the road was the first for the Penguins away from the Beeghly Center since March 8, 2008, which came at UIC. It also snaps a 22-game Horizon League losing streak dating back to a win over the Crusaders at the Beeghly Center on March 7, 2009.

The Penguins are now 3-13 overall and improve to 1-4 in the Horizon League while Valpo drops to 3-13 and 0-4.

Brown was 12-of-19 on the night and also finished with 18 rebounds, including nine on the offensive glass. Brown had previously scored 29 points earlier this year against IPFW.

Kenya Middlebrooks finished with 13 points while Boki Dimitrov added 11 in a winning effort. Combined from the free-throw line, those two players were 10-of-12. Valpo’s Betsy Adams was the only Crusader to reach double figures as she finished with 20.

The Penguins came out strong from the opening tap and never trailed in the contest.

Youngstown State came out and took control of the game early scoring 16 of the first 19 points taking a 16-3 lead at the 14:07 mark on a Brown basket.

YSU opened the game scoring the first five points before Valpo got on the scoreboard on a 3-pointer by Adams. But the Guins scored the next 11 points as Brown scored the first five, Dimitrov and Nortey each followed with layups and then Brown capped the run with a jumper.

The Crusaders cut the deficit to 18-15 as the Guins picked up just two points on a Middlebrooks bucket in a 9:06 span.

YSU led 23-17 with 4:23 left following two Middlebrooks free throws and a 3-pointer by Dimitrov. Adams pulled the Crusaders with three on a 3-pointer, but the Guins scored five straight to go back in front by eight. Valpo drained two 3-pointers in the final 2:12 to get within four at the break.

The Guins held on to lead 30-26 at the break. YSU shot 40.7 percent in the first half making 11-of-27 attempts while Valpo shot 37 percent (10-of-27)

In the first 20 minutes, Brown had 14 points and six rebounds while Dimitrov and Middlebrooks each had seven points. The Penguins protected the ball well committing only four turnovers.

In the second half, Valpo cut the deficit to 32-30 in the early going, but six straight YSU points forced the Crusaders to play catchup the rest of the night.

Valpo had crept back to 53-49 with just over two minutes to go, but Brown’s putback of Tieara Jones miss put the Guins up six at the 2:02 mark.

On their next two possessions, the Crusaders missed a shot and threw an errant pass out of bounds.

Dimitrov stepped to the line and drained two free throws with 44.3 seconds left to put YSU ahead 57-49.

Valpo answered with a layup by Skyler Gick with 38.7 ticks left, but was forced to foul. With 35.4 seconds remaining Dimitrov split a pair of free throws, but Valpo’s Rashida Ray missed the front end of a one-and-one and Jones corralled the rebound and dished to Middlebrooks who was fouled.

Middlebrooks drained two free throws with 16.3 seconds left pushing the lead to 60-51. Valpo scored four straight points before Dimitrov split another pair of charity tosses with 4.7 seconds for the final margin.

The Penguins wrap up their Indiana road trip on Saturday afternoon when they visit Butler. Tipoff at Hinkle Fieldhouse is set for 2 p.m. The contest can be heard on 570 WKBN.

In what could only be billed as a fair contest between Milwaukee and Youngstown State, the team that would make fewer mistakes would probably win.  Both teams came into Saturday’s game with nine game losing streaks.

In the first half, Milwaukee had a lead as large as 18 points.  Youngstown State carved and fought until that lead was shaved all the way down to  33-28 at intermission.  The Panthers used some good passing and kept finding open people to take shots in building a big first half lead.  Lindsay Laur had 11 points and Angela Rodriguez added 10 for Milwaukee.  YSU got a nice boost from Liz Hornberger who went three-of-three from three point range.  Hornberger fluttered into the game like a moth, but made an impact by half.  Brandi Brown also had 12 points and six rebounds.

In the second half, Youngstown State trimmed the deficit to one at 34-33 when Tieara Jones hit a basket.  Unfortunately for the Penguins, Milwaukee went on an 15-3 run and widened the margin 49-36 with 10:07 to go.  Kenya Middlebrooks hit a three, her first points of the game, at the 7:59 mark to make it 49-42.  Next trip down the court, Milwaukee turned it over and Macey Nortey hit a layup for her first points of the game to make it 49-44.  There were not a lot of people at Beeghly Center, but the ones that showed were loud and into the game.  Nortey would go on to score five points in a row for YSU, but with 5:00 left in the game, but Milwaukee would hold a 56-47 lead.

YSU, losers of 38 of their last 39 Horizon League games, scratched and clawed all they could but always seemed to be trailing by nine. With 2:08 left in the game, Milwaukee held a 62-52 lead.

Brown finished the game for Youngstown State with 22 points and eight rebounds.  Hornbereger finished with nine points, all in the first half, and Nortey contributed seven points (all in the second half).

Milwaukee got 19 from Lindsay Laur and 13 from Rodriguez.  Sami Tucker also scored 11 points and hauled in 11 boards for the Panthers.  The Panthers improved to 4-11, 1-3 in the league.

Brandi Brown talked about the loss for the Penguins.  “We dug ourselves a big hole in the first half .  We can’t do that and expect to fight back.  We know we can win and compete, but we have to get more consistent.”

Coach Boldon echoed the sentiments of Brown.  “Our offense was just miserable today.  We didn’t execute, we didn’t take care of the ball, and we got real tentative in the second half.  We also reverted to taking some crazy shots and passing up the good ones.  I was very frustrated.  To the halfway point in the season, we are about average.  This is a bad day to ask me that question because we were so bad today.  I think that the team is showing signs of improvement, but you can’t rebuild a program and expect to see improvement consistently each game.”

When the YSU women play Green Bay is equal to when the YSU men play Butler.  Green Bay has been the power of the Horizon League the last couple of seasons.  This season, the Phoenix come to Youngstown ranked #20 in the country and Coach Matt Bollant had never lost to a Penguins team.  Conversely, new YSU Coach Bob Boldon had never lost to Green Bay, so something had to give.  Unfortunately for Boldon, his young Penguins took one on the chin while facing a monumental challenge, falling 71-57  to Green Bay.

In the first half, Julie Wojta scored 20, and YSU scored 20.  Unfortunately, the other Green Bay players chipped in 18 additional points and YSU trailed 38-20 at the half.  Wojta (pictured above) was dominant in the paint.  The Phoenix had 22 rebounds (ten offensive) in the opening half, YSU had ten (zero offensive).  Green Bay also scored an impressive 23 points off of 18 YSU turnovers.

In the second half, Green Bay showed no signs of letting up.  Kayla Tetschlag and Celeste Hoewisch offered an alternative to Wojta with a couple of buckets on consecutive possessions.  The good news for YSU fans was that this team never hung their heads or quit.  YSU cut the lead to 16 with 15:04 left in the game at 47-31 when Boki Dimitrov hit a three.  Maryum Jenkins (below) hit a three with 11:04 left to cut the lead to 13.  Brandi Brown scored her 11th point with 10:19 left to cut Green Bay’s lead to 11 and the Penguins deserve a big pat on the back for showing a lot of heart.

The last three times the Lady Penguins have shot 50% or better , they have lost.  All three of those losses have been to Green Bay.

Green Bay pushed the lead back out to 15 with 7:03 remaining in the game and never looked back building a 68-47 lead with 4:04 left in the game.

Green Bay improved to 14-1, (3-0 HL) and didn’t have their “A” game but enough to win this one.  Wojta paced the Phoenix with 24 points and seven boards.  Hoewisch also knocked in 18 points.  Green Bay converted 32 Penguin turnovers into 43 points.

Youngstown State (2-12, 0-3 HL) played respectfully.  Tieara Jones finished the game with 12 points, Brandi Brown had 15 points, and Dimitrov 13 to lead YSU.

After the game, Boki Dimitrov addressed why the Penguins lost.  “It is not acceptable to have 32 turnovers. Things have changed and we have a good leader.  Coach Boldon inspires us to act on his leads. “

Boldon discussed the monster that is Green Bay.  “They are a great team, very well-coached and what I would want our program to be like someday.  They ran a secondary trap that we have not seen and their girls are very fast and just reload to the ball.  They are the best team that we have played all year and we get to play them again.”

The much-improved Youngstown State Lady Penguins welcomed their longtime geographic rival, the Akron Zips, to town for a finals week matchup.  The game was tied at 55 with just under five minutes to play, but Akron was able to clamp down and improve to 6-4 on the season, as they posted a 70-56 win at Youngstown State.

Akron carried a 31-25 lead into the locker room at the half thanks in part to shooting 44% from the floor.  Rachel Tecca led a balanced Zips attack in the first half with seven points.  Youngstown State got eight first half points from Boki Dimitrov including a couple of threes that kept YSU at a single digit deficit.  The Penguins launched 18 threes in the first half, hitting five.  The Zips also held a 20-14 rebounding advantage at the intermission.

The Penguins cut the Zips lead to 35-33 when Tieara Jones scored inside and was fouled.  Jones scored her tenth point to cut the Akron lead to one point at the 12:49 mark, but but Tecca responded on the Zips next possession to keep the lead at three.  Jones, a product of Rayen High School, again connected with 11:52 left in the game to make the score 41-40 in favor of Akron.  Jones was having one of her best nights as a Penguin.

Sina King gave Akron a 45-40 lead on a layup, but Kenya Middlebrooks hit a three coming back to keep the Penguins close.  Macey Nortey, who seems to hustle her heart out every game, had a steal and drove the court for a layup, and was fouled.  Nortey hit the free throw putting the Penguins in front for the first time in the second half at 46-45.

Middlebrooks was in a zone, hitting threes at will, she had three of them in a six minute span, including one at the 7:15 mark to put the Penguins back in front, 52-51.  Brandi Brown’s presence seemed like enough for Akron to really concentrate on shutting her down, allowing the role players like Middlebrooks, Nortey, and Jones ample chances to score.

Jasmine Mushington stepped up for the Zips and hit a couple of big baskets to give Akron back the lead at 59-55 with 3:54 left in the game.  Akron’s 9-1 run put the Penguins into fouling mode with 1:24 left in the game.  The Zips coasted home holding the Penguins to just one point over the final four and a half minutes.

Akron was paced by Tecca’s 19 points and 11 boards.  Youngstown State got 15 from Jones and 14 from Middlebrooks.  The Penguins finished 9-39 from three-point land.  With the loss, YSU fell to 2-7 and will not play at home again in 2010.

After the game, Coach Boldon spoke about his team’s collapse down the stretch.  “We look at film and see the things we do well, and the things we don’t do so well, and we are doing more things not so well right now.”

Tieara Jones talked about a piece of the machine giving way each possession.  “We play good defense, but if four people are on the same page and one breaks down, it can hurt the whole team and we had some of that tonight.  It wasn’t any one person in particular, just one of the four on the court would break down and it cost us.”

Youngstown State sophomore forward Brandi Brown has been honored as the Horizon League Women’s Basketball Player of the Week for the week beginning Nov. 22, the conference announced Monday.

Brown averaged 20 points and 8.5 rebounds in helping Youngstown State snap a 34-game losing streak and win back-to-back games for the first time since the 2007-08 season.

Brown notched her first double-double of the season – and 15th of her career – in Youngstown State’s 71-57 victory over Bucknell on Wednesday. She scored 16 of her game-high 23 points in the second half in just 13 minutes. She added 11 rebounds and two steals, and she was 7-for-8 from the free-throw line.

Brown then scored a game-high 17 points while posting six rebounds, two assists, two blocks and a steal in YSU’s come-from-behind victory over Ohio on Saturday. One of those assists came when she grabbed a defensive rebound and hit Macey Nortey on a fast-break lay-up with 55 seconds remaining that gave YSU its first lead of the second half.

Brown, a native of Pomona, Calif., leads the Horizon League in scoring with 20.2 points per game. She also ranks seventh in rebounding and ninth in 3-point field goals per contest.

Youngstown State’s last Horizon League Player of the Week was Jen Perugini on Feb. 28, 2005.

Last season,  Brown was pretty much robbed for Horizon League Newcomer of The Year as she was voted runner-up despite leading the conference in more statistics than the eventual winner of the award.