Correspondent photo file photo / Robert Hayes. YSU guard Shay-Lee Kirby defends a Northern Kentucky player during the Penguins’ game against the Norse on Jan. 24.

YOUNGSTOWN — Throughout the ups and downs of this season, one thing has remained consistent for Youngstown State — the defense.

Despite the occasional struggles that YSU has had offensively, the Penguins are the second-best defensive team in the Horizon League, giving up just 61.4 points per game.

“We spend a lot of time (on defense) in practice,” interim head coach John Nicolais said. “It’s always an emphasis of ours, and it has been for years, just trying to make things stingy defensively.”

The defense has been one of the reasons the Penguins are finally hitting their stride, having now won four straight games and six of their last eight, including three straight on the road, which culminated with Wednesday night’s 20-point victory over Wright State.

“To get those wins on the road, which is hard to do, was just really fun, and I think it shows the trend we’re on right now,” fifth-year guard Mady Aulbach said. “Everything is coming together for us. So hopefully the pieces keep coming together and we play our best basketball towards the end of February.”

In years past, YSU was almost exclusively a halfcourt man-to-man team, and they started off that way this season, as well.

But with the results not necessarily showing up at the same rate in the win-column, the Penguins looked for solutions. So, YSU began experimenting with different defensive looks.

Against Cleveland State on Jan. 6, YSU briefly implemented a zone near the end of the loss. The Penguins had some success with slowing down the Vikings’ offensive onslaught, and so they’ve mixed in the zone against opponents at times in games since then.

But one of the gamechangers for the Penguins has been their utilization of a full-court press in recent weeks.

YSU first began practicing a full-court pressure defense back before the start of the season, but didn’t fully implement it in game until they played Robert Morris on Jan. 27. The Penguins pressed from the opening tip and forced the Colonials into 22 turnovers.

The press has continued to work for YSU since during its four-game win streak with active guards like Aulbach, Haley Thierry, Dena Jarrells, Shay-Lee Kirby and Malia Magestro spearheading the Penguins’ point of attack.

“We’ve tried to add some things with a little more zone and we’re pressing now, so it’s evolving and taking on different forms, just depending on who we’re playing,” Nicolais said. “I feel like adding the press element to it, it ramped up our team a little bit to where they’re being a little more aggressive with things instead of just having to do it in the halfcourt.”

Even after pressing, playing man or playing zone, and when all else fails, the Penguins still have one last line of defense to stop opposing teams from scoring — fifth-year center Emily Saunders.

Her ability to contest shots and clean things up in the paint has been a failsafe on defense for YSU. The 6-foot-5 post leads the Horizon League in blocks (55) and is averaging 2.1 per game.

But, a hallmark of YSU’s defensive strategy has been its ability to minimize, and even at times completely eliminate, one of an opposing teams’ primary offensive threats. It all starts with preparation.

“A lot of it just stems from overall matchups — how we match up with each team,” Nicolais said. “Some matchups are better than others and are more favorable for us. But we spend a lot of time working, watching film and trying to break the film down to really pay attention to player tendencies. That’s the biggest thing we want to get out of that and relay to the team, as far as how we need to defend the scout team in practice and make it look like it’s going to in the game.”

With former coach John Barnes’ departure and the staff re-shuffling that has ensued, director of player personnel Jason Pacanowski has stepped into a new role this year, where he helps prepare the opposing scouting reports for the Penguins.

“Our coaches do a really good job of scouting for us, and they give us all the keys to every player,” Aulbach said. “If you know Coach Pac at all, he’s a very thorough person. So with his scouts on each player, if you don’t know something about them, it’s your own fault because they’re giving us all the information.”

It started back in early December against Akron. Zips forward Reagan Bass is averaging 17.2 points and 10.5 rebounds per game this season, yet YSU held her to 11 points on 4-for-13 shooting.

Then in mid January, Amellia Bromenschenkel and Shayla Sellers were Purdue Fort Wayne’s two leading scorers, combining to average 24.0 points per game. The Penguins limited them to a combined six total points on 2-for-19 shooting.

At the beginning of this month, YSU again did the same thing to Milwaukee’s Kamy Peppler, who is averaging 11.3 points and 5.2 assists per game. Against the Penguins, Peppler was held scoreless.

Finally, it continued again Wednesday against Wright State. Alexis Hutchinson has led the conference in scoring at 18.7 points per game, but against YSU, she could only muster six points on 1-for-12 shooting.

“It’s just team defense guarding a really good player like (Hutchinson) and we always say that,” Aulbach said. “With Kamy Peppler, they ran her off a lot of screens, so we had a lot of people helping on screens, which is something you may not even notive. We just make sure everyone knows every player on the scout because at any time, you could be switched onto her.

“I think we’ve been taking (the scouting reports) a lot more seriously. The second time around (conference play), it’s always easier because you’ve played them once, so you know what they’re going to do.”

YSU’s defense now gets one of its toughest tests yet, as the Penguins put their season-long win streak on the line against Green Bay, which is tied atop the conference standings with Cleveland State, on Saturday.

nmadhavan@tribtoday.com