Milwaukee breezes by Youngstown State, 75-54
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YOUNGSTOWN -- When Youngstown State and Milwaukee collided Friday night at the Beeghly Center, both teams began the game at an impressive clip offensively.
Only one, however, managed to make it last.
Despite taking a double-digit lead various times throughout the first half, YSU couldn't sustain the momentum as the evening wore on, as the Panthers clawed back and pulled away for a 75-54 victory.
"I tell you what, I thought they played great," YSU coach John Barnes said of Milwaukee. "I think that might have been the best a team has played against us all year, except maybe Cleveland State at Cleveland State. The way they moved the ball, making all their shots, and I thought we got up to a 12-point lead early, and then we relaxed a little bit and let them back in it."
The Penguins (18-8, 12-5 Horizon League) began the game 10-for-11 from the field but finished 11-for-42 the rest of the night for an overall performance of 21-for-53. Milwaukee (9-16, 7-10 Horizon League), by contrast, wasn't quite as sharp early -- 7-for-16 after the first quarter -- but ended up shooting 29-of-56 overall and a scorching 14-for-24 from 3-point range.
The early hot start allowed YSU to open on a 13-0 run to take a quick 13-2 advantage, and throughout the early portions of the first half, the lead floated around that double-digit mark. But each time it seemed YSU was poised for a haymaker, Milwaukee was able to fight back into the mix.
Lilly Ritz gave YSU its final double-digit lead of the night with a bucket with 5:01 to play in the first half, but that was Youngstown State's last field goal until a Megan Callahan 3-pointer with 1:49 left in the third quarter. During that stretch, Milwaukee rallied from a 36-26 deficit to take a 53-43 lead. The Penguins never got back to within single digits the rest of the night.
Callahan led YSU with 18 points and four assists, while Ritz had 12 points and 10 rebounds. Paige Shy scored eight points. Callahan scored her 1,000th career point during the third quarter.
As a team, YSU coughed up 17 turnovers while assisting on just 13 field goals.
"You turn the ball over a few times, you miss a few shots, they're making their shots, and now the whole thing changes," Barnes said. "It doesn't take much. We probably had four or five end of shot clock (situations) where we couldn't get a shot off. You can't do that and expect to win, especially when a team is playing as well as (Milwaukee) did. There's not a whole lot to say other than they played great and we struggled."
And as jarring as the cratering of the offense may have been, the continued struggles for YSU's defense have to be just as jarring. For most of February -- save for the 85-62 win over Oakland on Feb. 9 and the late stages of the 72-67 win over Detroit Mercy -- the Penguin defense has allowed opponents to shoot above their season averages and hasn't found the needed consistency as the postseason draws near.
Milwaukee had 20 assists to just nine turnovers, and its 7-for-16 first quarter was the only stanza of the night in which the Panthers shot less than 50 percent from the field. That came even as YSU threw different schemes at the Panthers to try and get them off balance.
Angie Cera paced the Panthers with 20 points, while Megan Walstad added 17 points and Kamy Peppler scored 11.
"They made a run at half, so it was tied (at 39), and then they had all the momentum," Barnes said. "We just couldn't get stops. We kind of hang our hat on our defense, and no matter what we tried -- zone, man, pressure, whatever -- they were just scoring. ... Not a lot was going right tonight, but I give them a lot of credit. I thought they played outstanding. They were the better team tonight, and sometimes that happens."
"It's definitely concerning," Callahan added. "We all know that defense wins championships. But we play in a day, so it's (about) coming back tomorrow, watching the film, watching what we did wrong and seeing how we can defend against Green Bay (on Sunday)."
That begins a frenzied final week of the regular season in which the Penguins host Green Bay on Sunday then visit IUPUI on Tuesday and Robert Morris on Saturday.
"It's fast and furious right now, so there's no feeling sorry for ourselves," Barnes said. "We have to figure it out. We have to play better. We have to play better defense, we have to take care of (the ball) better, we have to rebound better. We just have to get it done."
jwhetzel@tribtoday.com