Penguins’ slide continues, fall to Green Bay
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YOUNGSTOWN -- A slow start and poor shooting were too much to overcome.
Youngstown State's frustrating stretch continued Sunday, as the Penguins fell to Green Bay 67-54 on Senior Day at the Beeghly Center.
YSU (18-9, 12-6 Horizon League) shot just 20-for-60 overall and an abysmal 5-for-29 from 3-point range in the loss, during which the Penguins never held a lead and trailed by as much as 25 in the second half.
"How many layups did we miss today? We missed 12 layups ... and you have to finish those. We were right there, and how many threes went in and out?" YSU coach John Barnes rhetorically asked after the game. "Those went in at their place, and we won the game."
From the start, YSU struggled from the field. The Penguins went just 3-for-15 from the field in the first quarter and forward Lilly Ritz had all three field goals. Meanwhile, Green Bay (23-4, 16-2 Horizon League) came out of the gates quickly, sinking eight of its 15 field goals to build an 18-6 lead after the first quarter.
That set the stage for a day in which the Phoenix led for 38:43 of the 40 minutes of game time.
"You definitely can never get away with that against Green Bay," Ritz said of YSU's sluggish start. "They play great defense, and they hit the shots they need to hit. Getting into that hole and then having to claw our way back (wasn't) good."
To their credit, the Penguins did battle back, even after trailing 36-21 at halftime and by as much as 25 in the third quarter. After Green Bay's advantage swelled to that largest point -- a 49-24 lead with 5:28 to go -- YSU whittled away and got back to within 53-36 to end the period.
That 12-4 spurt grew into a larger 19-4 run for YSU, as the Penguins started the fourth quarter on a 7-0 run to get within 10.
However, the Penguins couldn't close the gap entirely, due in part to missed open looks and in part to giving up offensive boards to Green Bay on critical possessions.
"We dug ourselves into a hole down 25 and came all the way back to 10. That's a long way to come back, and you give up a lot of energy doing that. I felt the kids gave everything they had to do, but ... you can't dig yourself in a huge hole and then try to dig yourself out," Barnes said.
He added, "I felt like we had a chance down the stretch, but missed a couple crucial box outs, and they got a couple of big offensive rebounds which kind of took the air out of us. But we'll learn a lot from this and move onto the next game."
Ritz paced the Penguins with 20 points and 14 rebounds, while Dena Jarrells had 11 points. Megan Callahan tallied nine points, while Paige Shy dished five assists.
The Penguins 3-point percentage of 17.2 was the fifth worst of the season.
Green Bay picked up 17 points from Callie Genke and 16 points and eight rebounds from Cassie Schiltz. Jenna Guyer added 15 points on a 6-for-12 day. Since falling to YSU on Jan. 20, the Phoenix have won nine straight.
YSU continues its campaign Tuesday at IUPUI and then closes the regular season at Robert Morris on Saturday. Despite the recent struggles -- YSU has lost four of its last six -- Barnes says the team isn't panicking, and is just focused on taking things one game at a time as the postseason draws near.
"Once we settled in, we played a lot better," Barnes said. "IUPUI is really good. They beat us here, and they're one of the best 3-point shooting teams in the league and have a really good post player. So they will be a challenge."
jwhetzel@tribtoday.com