Correspondent photo / Robert Hayes Youngstown State’s Emily Saunders eyes the basket against NKU.

YOUNGSTOWN — Finding consistency on both ends of the floor is something that Youngstown State has struggled with this season.

It was no more apparent than it was on Wednesday, as the Penguins stalled on both ends of the floor for long stretches in a 62-56 loss to Northern Kentucky.

“In practice this week, we focused a lot on our defense,” fifth-year Dena Jarrells said. “We held them to 62, which is about what we’ve been doing mostly, (especially) since they’ve been scoring 80 the past three games. So we did our job there, but I think our problem right now is just offense. We’re not scoring, we’re not making shots and we’re not doing it consistently.”

The Penguins had just two players in double figures, with Jarrells scoring 15 points and Emily Saunders adding 17. YSU finished the game shooting only 33.9%

Even in a down year, the one consistent thing for YSU (7-13, 3-7 Horizon) this season has been its defense. The Penguins have been at or near the top of the Horizon League in scoring defense all season long, limiting teams to 61.8 points per game.

While YSU was able to hold NKU to 37.5% shooting and match that scoring average, it wasn’t at the same level to which it’s usually accustomed.

The Norse (4-14, 2-7 Horizon) had stretches where they were able to seemingly do whatever they wanted offensively, taking advantage of mismatches on the floor. NKU freshman Carter McCray had a 13-point, 12-rebound double-double in the post, while Macey Blevins did her damage both inside and out to finish with a game-high 20 points.

“They were picking on certain matchups of ours defensively,” interim head coach John Nicolais said. “They kept doing it well, and we weren’t getting stops. We couldn’t find a way to, one-on-one, make them miss. That compounded things with not getting quality looks on our end. That part was a little frustrating, to say the least. Hopefully we can show it on film, let it sink in and move on from it and learn from it and execute whenever it happens the next time.”

But no stretch was more significant than the end of the second quarter.

The Penguins led early in the period, holding a three-point edge after the first quarter. But after exchanging a couple of baskets back-and-forth with the Norse, YSU went scoreless for the final seven minutes of the half.

During that time, NKU used a 9-0 run to take a 34-25 lead into halftime and never looked back from there. The Norse outscored the Penguins 21-9 in that fateful second quarter.

“That killed us,” Nicolais said. “We had people in foul trouble that we had to sit, so our rotations were a little out of whack, and we just couldn’t get in a good flow. They were playing statistical tendencies of ours and playing off of certain players that didn’t have great percentages, and it made things stagnant for us. When we did get open looks, they just didn’t fall. That was really the difference in the game was that run in the second quarter.”

One of the biggest reasons for that was turnovers. YSU turned the ball over 11 times in the first half, compared to just four for NKU, which resulted in a 12-0 difference in points off turnovers in favor of the Norse. The Penguins ended up finishing with 17 turnovers.

“We were a little too careless with the basketball early, especially in the first half — way too many turnovers,” Nicolais said. “Coming off the Purdue Fort Wayne win (last week), I think we had 22 assists to 15 turnovers, and (Wednesday), it’s 17 turnovers to 12 assists.”

YSU finally got back on the board with back-to-back baskets to start the second half, but the Norse picked up where they left off in the first half during a 23-point third quarter.

Despite three straight three-pointers by the Penguins to end the third, YSU wasn’t able to complement that with stops on the defensive end, and thus were never able to close the gap with the Norse until it was too late.

NKU only scored five points in the fourth quarter, going 1-for-11. YSU eventually was able to cut the deficit to five with under a minute to go, but that was as close as it would get.

“We were trying to go quick tempo, and I felt like we had some pretty wide open looks that if they go in, it really puts a lot of pressure (on NKU),” Nicolais said. “(It was) possibly a couple momentum swinging shots that didn’t fall for us. When we were down five, we thought we had enough time to defend without fouling, and we did get a miss, but when we hit one free throw that put us behind, so we had to foul quite a bit to get it in the bonus.

“We’ll have to go back and look at the film and reevaluate that for another game, but it was probably a little bit too little, too late.”

YSU now finishes its three-game homestand at 1:30 p.m. Saturday against Robert Morris at the Beeghly Center.

nmadhavan@tribtoday.com