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YSU stagnates offensively as Detroit Mercy rallies back for 65-58 victory

Correspondent photo / Robert Hayes. YSU freshman Sophia Gregory eyes the basket while being guarded by Detroit Mercy's Aaliyah McQueen in the Penguins' 65-58 loss on Wednesday night at the Beeghly Center. Gregory, a West Branch alum, scored 15 points for YSU in the loss.

YOUNGSTOWN — Youngstown State’s offensive woes reared their ugly head once again on Wednesday night.

Despite exploding out of the gates in the first quarter, the Penguins were stagnant offensively the rest of the night as Detroit Mercy rallied back for a 65-58 victory over YSU to hand the Penguins their first Horizon League conference loss of the season.

“I think going into the second half, starting with the second quarter, they really just had more energy than us,” fifth-year guard Malia Magestro said. “We talked about that, so that’s one thing we know we need to do better moving forward. We came out with a lot of energy in the first quarter, played really well, and then we just kind of let them control the rest of the game. So we need to just be better about that.”

Thanks to three straight baskets to start the game by freshman Sophia Gregory, YSU raced ahead with an 11-2 start in the opening minutes.

By the end of the period, the Penguins had a 23-8 advantage over the Titans, who shot just 21.4% to open the game.

From there, thanks to 44 combined points from Emaia O’Brien (20 points) and Aaliyah McQueen (24 points), Detroit Mercy outscored YSU 57-35 over the final three quarters.

“They’re tough. They’ve done this in multiple games,” head coach Melissa Jackson said. “O’Brien has hit big, big shots. McQueen’s a heck of a player. She’s a tough guard for us. I thought we did an okay job with her, but it was tough to contain them. They were well above their averages. We knew we couldn’t have that. I thought we did a pretty good job keeping everybody else in check, but they can’t go off like that.”

After shooting a sizzling 52.9% from the floor in the first quarter, the Penguins shot just 29.4% the rest of the game.

YSU’s biggest lead came midway through the second quarter when it pulled ahead by 16, and the Penguins still maintained a 10-point advantage at halftime thanks to a driving layup by Magestro in the final seconds.

“I thought our shot selection to open that second quarter was not how we started the game. We were more aggressive going to the rim,” Jackson said. “In the second quarter, we jacked some threes, took some really bad shots, I thought. That’s where the game really shifted.”

But YSU went cold in the third quarter. The Penguins made just one field goal, with nine of their 11 points coming at the free-throw line. At one point, YSU had a five-minute scoring drought in the third quarter that allowed the Titans to cut the deficit to one by the end of the period.

“I thought we could hold on there, but credit Detroit, they were much more aggressive. Came out in that second half and really drove it on us,” Jackson said. “We gotta be much more disciplined. How many three-point plays did they get there? We continued to foul and we weren’t in our help side.”

Detroit took its first lead of the game on a driving layup by McQueen with 7:09 left.

Still, YSU was able to tie the game at 54 on a 3-pointer by Magestro with 2:31 to go. But Detroit Mercy closed out those final couple minutes on an 11-4 run to put the game away.

“Not great,” Jackson said of YSU’s late-game execution. “First time we’ve been in this situation for this group. We talked a lot about getting stops, continuing to be disciplined and getting rebounds. I also thought they were much more aggressive with the winning plays. We talk about that a lot in our program. That was a big intangible for us. We knew it was going to come down to hustle plays, and I thought they were the aggressors there, as well. We gotta be better in those situations.”

Magestro led the Penguins with 16 points, while Gregory finished with 15 points, six rebounds and four assists. Jewel Watkins was also in double figures with 10 points for YSU and Faith Burch added nine points.

YSU will continue its homestand on Saturday when Point Park visits the Beeghly Center.

“We’ll learn from tonight. We’ll watch some film and break that down, but we won’t dive too much into it because we’re going to see Detroit again,” Jackson said. “But you can always learn. Saturday is a big-time game for us. As big as this one was, Saturday is equally as important for us to get back to what we want to do and how we want to play.”

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