Correspondent photo / Robert Hayes. Youngstown State’s Abbie Davidson (14) goes up for a layup during the Penguins’ win over Slippery Rock.

YOUNGSTOWN — Youngstown State continued its winning start to the season Saturday night with a 78-32 victory over Division II foe Slippery Rock (Pa.).

By the end of the first quarter, the Penguins had already built a 12-point lead. Then by halftime, YSU’s lead had ballooned to 29 points.

With how the game played out, it gave the Penguins the opportunity to work on tuning some things in a game situation on both ends of the floor.

“That was something we had talked about coming into this game,” acting head coach John Nicolais said. “We didn’t really have a lot to go off of to scout them (since) it was their first game and new coaching staff with different styles. … So we tried to make it more about us and we tried to experiment a little bit with some different things offensively and try to get our top 9-10 kids less minutes to try to get them ready for next week.”

Junior Haley Thierry, who finished with 12 points on 5-for-7 shooting, said one of the things the Penguins wanted was to try to get up the floor and push the tempo a little more than normal offensively.

“For this game, we really wanted to work on tuning up a lot of things with our plays and defensive and offensive lineups,” Thierry said.

It also allowed YSU to get some of its newcomers and younger players increased minutes and playing time.

Eleven different players played at least seven minutes for the Penguins, with all but one of them getting the opportunity to register points on the statsheet.

“It was nice to see the other kids off the bench come in and provide a spark and get them comfortable,” Nicolais said.

One of those was Salem product and true freshman Abbie Davidson, who scored six points on 3-for-4 shooting in seven minutes of playing time.

“I didn’t really expect to see that many minutes tonight, but just to get the opportunity is a blessing and I’m so thankful I had the opportunity,” Davidson said of registering her first collegiate points. “I’m still nervous. I don’t think those (nerves) will ever go away. This level is completely different, and it’s just something I’m going to have to get used to with experience.”

Just three nights after setting a career high in her first career start against Xavier on Wednesday, fifth-year Emily Saunders had a repeat performance against The Rock.

With Slippery Rock not having a player taller than 6-foot-1 on its roster, the 6-foot-5 Saunders was able to take advantage of her size in the post. She had her second-straight 20-plus point game to start the season, finishing with 22 points and nine rebounds.

“We thought initially we might see a little more zone because of the size disadvantage that they had,” Nicolais said. “But honestly, with that height difference, we really wanted to throw the ball inside early and often and get her going.”

Dena Jarrells also joined Saunders and Thierry in double figures for YSU, finishing with 11 points.

After turning the ball over 21 times against the Musketeers earlier in the week, the Penguins turnover woes popped up once again, as YSU turned the ball over 18 times against The Rock.

“That’s definitely too many. Honestly, we want to keep it around 13 — (we think) that’s a pretty good number for us,” Nicolais said. “Part of that is that we were trying to push tempo and I still don’t feel like we’re comfortable doing that yet. That’s where some of those turnovers came from. But I wouldn’t say that, in these two games, it’s been what the defense has done to us as much as it’s been self-inflicted on our part. So we gotta be better.”

YSU now has a few days before the schedule picks up again with Western Michigan at home on Thursday, before a trip to West Virginia on Nov. 19.