Correspondent photo / Robert Hayes Youngstown State’s Taylor Petit goes in for two. She had 19 points in Monday’s win against UIC.

YOUNGSTOWN — Cautiously optimistic. That would be a good way to describe the Youngstown State University women’s basketball team.

The Penguins are leading the Horizon League with a 9-4 overall and 2-0 league mark, but they are well aware of the team’s height deficiency with the injuries to 6-foot-3 senior Mary Dunn and 6-4 junior Emma VanZanten. Dunn has surgery to clean out her meniscus, while VanZanten is recovering from a fractured bone in her foot. Both injuries came in mid-November and the pair might be coming back soon.

“We’re hoping as soon as possible,” said YSU coach John Barnes, as his team is at Northern Kentucky (7-6, 1-1) tonight at 7. “It’s kind of day-by-day with them. I think both are getting closer. You really can’t say when. It’s more or less how they feel. Amara (Chikwe) is a long way off I think.

“It’s a challenge, but the players that are eligible and playing are stepping it up and playing as hard as they can, keep finding a way.”

Chikwe suffered a concussion in early November, but is still recovering.

Meanwhile, the 10 eligible YSU players left have made the most of their situation — winning the last four games, including two league games at home. The Penguins overcame a 14-point, second-quarter deficit to overcome one of the best in the Horizon — IUPUI.

YSU is 23-2 at home since the start of the 2018-19 season.

“Getting those two wins at home are huge in a number of ways,” Barnes said. “One, it continues to give us confidence. Two, you need to protect your home court. If you don’t win your home games, it doesn’t give you much of a chance to win the league.”

The Penguins have had plenty of firepower from the perimeter as redshirt freshman Taylor Petit was named Horizon League freshman of the week after her 19-point performance against UIC Monday.

Junior forward McKenah Peters (5-9) has been playing the No. 4 spot on the floor, hovering around the basket. She was named Horizon League player of the week after her career highs of 22 points and 15 rebounds. Peters averages 11.4 points and 6.5 rebounds per game.

Petit and Maddie Schires rank second and fourth among league freshmen with averages of 9.4 and 8.3 points per game. Schires ranks fourth with 2.4 3-pointers per game.

Meanwhile, junior guard Chelsea Olson has recorded three double-doubles and a triple-double through 13 games. She’s seventh in the league with 7.5 rebounds per game, 13th in scoring (11.5) and ninth in assists (three). With Dunn and Chikwe out, Olson and Peters have been the only active Penguins who played more than 10 minutes per game last season.

The only player on the roster taller than 6-0 is 6-2 freshman forward Jen Wendler. She averages 5.8 points and 3.1 rebounds per game through 12 games.

“No question on the perimeter, but you need five,” Barnes said. “We’re going to run into some teams that are really big. It’s incredibly difficult to get stops if you’re playing four guards and a forward out there.”

Tonight, YSU faces a NKU team, which is 7-2 in the last nine games with losses to Green Bay and nationally-ranked Louisville.

Molly Glick, a 5-11 redshirt senior guard, is sixth in the Horizon League with 14.7 points per game. Her 2.46 3-pointers are second best in the Horizon.

Ally Niece, a 5-8 sophomore point guard, averages 11.9 points per outing. Three other Norse players average at least 7.3 points.

YSU is 1-4 at Northern Kentucky under Barnes.

“They’re playing really well right now,” he said. “It’s going to be a challenge to say the least.”

Tonight is the start of a five-game road trip for the Penguins.

“I want us to continue to make progress in terms of our mental part of the game, eliminating mental mistakes and executing the game plan – to continue to play as hard as we can and leave it all out on the floor,” Barnes said.