Correspondent photo / Robert Hayes Youngstown State’s Malia Magestro shoots and scores a three-pointer during the second half Thursday evening.

YOUNGSTOWN — In its first meeting with Wright State, Youngstown State blitzed the Raiders for a 23-point lead after the first quarter and never looked back. In Thursday night’s rematch at the Beeghly Center, the Penguins instead found themselves in a battle.

The Raiders managed to keep themselves in striking distance well into the third quarter, but a 9-2 YSU run to begin the fourth quarter allowed the Penguins to put things away for a 76-60 Horizon League victory.

“We knew it’s going to be (a battle) no matter who it is. Every team in the Horizon League is really good on any given night, so we knew we had to come out, be really aggressive and shoot threes,” YSU guard Malia Magestro said.

And that’s just what the Penguins did.

YSU (15-5, 9-2 Horizon League) hit 11 shots from 3-point range, paced by a 4-for-5 night from deep by Paige Shy. She scored 14 points and added six rebounds, while Magestro led the backcourt with 17 points.

Dena Jarrells scored 11 points to go with three assists and Megan Callahan added just six points, but facilitated well with a career-high seven assists.

That was all coupled by a dominant night by Lilly Ritz. The forward posted 23 points and 19 rebounds.

“There’s not much more you can say about that,” said an impressed YSU coach John Barnes. “She did a great job, and I feel like we didn’t really throw it inside as much as we normally do. So for her to have such a big game was huge.”

Of the guards, he added, “I thought Malia had a really nice game, and then Megan, they weren’t letting her get any shots off, so she had seven assists and only one turnover. That’s a really good game. … Paige with 14 points, Dena with 11 points, three assists and only one turnover. (We had) a lot of really good performances.”

And it took those performances to put away struggling Wright State (2-19, 1-10 Horizon League), which showed it was ready to battle.

YSU grew its lead to double figures a handful of times into the third quarter, but Wright State was able to answer in that span, including a 6-0 run that brought them to within five points.

Bryce Nixon paced WSU with 16 points, while Taylor Johnson-Matthews had 11 points and six rebounds. Cara VanKempen and Emily Chapman each added seven points.

“I think (Wright State coach) Kari (Hoffman) does a really great job with her personnel,” Barnes said. “They shoot the heck out of it, and if you make one mistake defensively, they’re making a three. I thought they did a really good job of putting us in tough positions and finding a way to score.”

The Penguins managed to push the lead to 55-46 at the end of the third quarter, and then opened the fourth with that haymaking run. Ritz sank a layup to kick that off, and then Magestro followed with a triple to push the advantage to 60-46.

Magestro followed with a layup, and then after a Wright State basket, sank another trey to give YSU its largest lead of the night, 65-48, with 6:14 to play. WSU never got back to within single digits from there.

Youngstown State continues its campaign Saturday with a showdown against Northern Kentucky. The Norse (13-7, 7-4 Horizon League) topped Robert Morris 62-47 on Thursday, and sit at fifth in the Horizon League, just a half-game back of IUPUI. YSU won its initial matchup with NKU, 59-55 down in Highland Heights, Ky., on Dec. 2.

“NKU is a team that can win it all in my opinion,” Barnes said. “They’re very good, talented, well-coached. … We’re going to have to play really well Saturday.”