Correspondent photo / Robert Hayes. YSU's Faith Burch drives and scores in the post while being fouled during the first half on Thursday at the Wolstein Center in Cleveland. She scored six points in the Penguins' 67-53 loss to Cleveland State.

CLEVELAND — The first quarter went perfectly according to script for Youngstown State. Unfortunately for the Penguins, three more quarters still had to be played.

Despite the Penguins’ early lead on Wednesday, Cleveland State finally found its footing in the second quarter and pulled away for a 67-53 victory over YSU at the Wolstein Center in Cleveland.

“Cleveland State’s a heck of a team, and they’re really hard to prepare for, both offensively and defensively,” head coach Melissa Jackson said. “I thought our guys really locked in and competed, but then you see that second quarter, we got a little fatigued, and they ran it down our throats. Their transition is unbelievable. We got away from what was working a little bit in that first quarter. But very happy, very proud of my team. They continue to fight and compete, and I think we learned a lot tonight.”

Over the first few minutes, YSU attacked CSU’s zone, moving the ball and finding space in the middle of the floor, which allowed the Penguins to jump ahead to an early 9-2 lead.

But then YSU went scoreless for the next four minutes. Still, the Penguins’ defense kept the Vikings’ talented scorers in check, and YSU was able to maintain an 11-8 lead by the end of the first quarter.

“Ball movement, we were getting to the spots and just a couple things that we put in that I thought would be effective against it,” Jackson said of the Penguins attacking the zone. “I thought our kids really executed — they were strong with the ball.”

From there, it was all Cleveland State, however.

After the early nine-point flurry, YSU made one of its next 15 field goal attempts. During that stretch, the Vikings went on a 25-5 run and took a 12-point lead by halftime.

“They turned up the pressure as I thought they would, and we gotta continue to handle that a little bit better throughout the game,” Jackson said.

In the second half, Cleveland State pushed its lead to as many as 21 points, but the Penguins still hung around.

Jewel Watkins started to find her shot in the second half, and she went on to finish with a team-high 15 points to go along with 10 points from Haley Thierry. The Penguins were 33.3% from the floor overall, and shot 29.2% from beyond the arc.

After the slow start, the Vikings’ wealth of scoring options started finding their rhythm.

Sara Guerriero put together a near triple-double, leading the Vikings with 18 points, 12 rebounds and seven assists. Mickayla Perdue finished with 16 points, while Jordana Reisma also had a double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds.

“Pick your poison, right?” Jackson said. “You got (Reisma), who I think is hands down the best post player in our league and one of the best post players in the country. You got (Purdue), who’s an unbelievable three-level scorer, Destiny (Leo) who’s looking really good right now with her shot, and then Sara is just an unbelievable glue kit for them.”

FAMILIAR TERRITORY

Redshirt junior forward Faith Burch made her return to Cleveland on Thursday.

Burch spent her first three seasons of college basketball playing for the Vikings. In her final season at Cleveland State in 2023-2024, she played in all 35 of the team’s games, averaging 3.6 points and 3.9 rebounds in 10.7 minutes of action per game.

Burch, a Warren native and Warren G. Harding alum, scored six points and pulled down six rebounds in her first game back at the Wolstein Center since transferring back home to YSU last summer.

“It was definitely a warm feeling because a lot of the players that are still playing, I’m really good friends with them,” Burch said. “So it was really cool to have that experience going against them, then afterwards, just hugging and taking pictures.”

Despite picking up two early fouls that forced her to the bench for a long stretch of the first half, Burch was aggressive during her 20 minutes on the floor. She was able to pull down a handful of rebounds from her former teammate Reisma in the post, while also coalescing some loose balls on the floor for the Penguins.

But Burch wasn’t the only one making a return to CSU on Thursday evening.

Jackson spent one season on Vikings head coach Chris Kielsmeier’s staff last year before she was hired as the Penguins’ head coach.

“It’s all about the relationships, right? A lot of great relationships with those players and coaches,” Jackson said. “I’ve played against Cleveland State, and I’ve played in the Wolstein Center, so that was nothing different. But the relationships with those players, and a lot of great memories — won a (Horizon League championship) ring with them. Learned a lot last year that I think we can take from them and take from that year, and hopefully instill it in our program because that’s the level we want to be at.”