Correspondent photo / Robert Hayes Youngstown State’s Dena Jarrells heads up the court after making a 3-pointer while her teammates celebrate behind her. Jarrells scored 18 in the YSU victory.

YOUNGSTOWN — Overall this season, Youngstown State has proven itself to be a second-half team.

On average, the Penguins have been outscored in the first half, but YSU has outscored its opposition after halftime, especially in the third quarter.

Such was the case once again Wednesday night, as the Penguins rode a sizable third quarter surge to a 70-63 victory over Oakland for their second Horizon League victory of the season.

“We moved the basketball, I think that was the biggest thing,” acting head coach John Nicolais said. “We spaced, we moved, we got penetration and were able to kick for inside-out looks and got some high-percentage shots around the basket. We did try to be aggressive out of their press and throw over the top, which gave us some numbers, so I felt like that had a lot to do with the third quarter success.”

It started with back-to-back threes from fifth-year Dena Jarrells to end the first half, which helped YSU tie the game at 32 heading into the halftime break.

Then the Penguins blew the game open in the third quarter, outscoring the Golden Grizzlies 25-12 during the period.

“We all talked about this year, especially when we went on that losing streak, playing four quarters, and that’s something we’ve struggled with,” Jarrells said. “I don’t know, sometimes it was us coming out in the second quarter, coming out in the first quarter or even the third and fourth — we just weren’t finishing what we would start. I think that’s the big thing for us going into these next few games, especially the competition we’re playing. The Horizon League is just loaded this year, no matter what team you’re playing, so we’re going to have to do that every game.”

Throughout their basketball careers — from high school to their time at YSU — most of the Penguins have been lauded for their ability to score and shoot. But YSU has struggled shooting the ball throughout this season. The Penguins are shooting just 39.2% this year as a team, as well as only 25.3% from three-point range.

“I know most of the girls, especially the West Virginia girls, but I know Malia as well — we all scored 1000-plus or 2000 points in high school. So we know what we’re capable of,” Jarrells said. “Especially our guards shooting the three.”

But, against the Golden Grizzlies, YSU finally saw the ball go through the hoop with some regularity, as the Penguins had one of their best shooting performances of the season.

YSU shot 51.1% from the floor overall, while also hitting 42.1% of its shots from beyond the arc, far and away its best three-point shooting output of the season.

“I think we’re capable of shooting what we shot tonight in every game,” Jarrells said. “Earlier in the year, I think when we first started the season, we were shooting so much outside of practice that it was kind of crazy. I think, honestly, maybe we shot too much because we dialed that back a little bit. We have five and six-year seniors on this team, so sometimes, it’s good to save your legs. So that’s what we’ve been trying to do.”

Jarrells paved the way with a strong first half, during which she scored 13 of her game-high 18 points. Then fellow fifth-year Paige Shy picked up the scoring slack for the Penguins in the second half.

Shy scored 13 of her also-game high 18 points in the second half. The pair were two of four YSU players to finish in double figures. Emily Saunders and Malia Magestro each had 10, while Haley Thierry pitched in seven points for the Penguins.

“I feel like our bench was great today,” Shy said. “I think they gave us a really good spark and played really big minutes for us. I think Haley Thierry was a big key to that run that we had (in the third quarter), and I feel like we feed off each other when we get on a run. And scoring was balanced today, we made the extra pass and I feel like we just took that momentum that we had from the spark from the bench and ran.”

YSU’s defense was again stout, as Oakland shot just 31% from the floor. But the Golden Grizzlies were able to generate a large portion of their offense off second-chance looks from offensive rebounds.

Oakland killed the Penguins on the offensive glass 23-7, and that resulted in 24 second-chance points compared to YSU’s seven.

“We knew it was coming, but we didn’t have great matchups per se as we might in certain games. That played a little bit as to why it went down like that,” Nicolais said. “But that part was a little disappointing that we weren’t matching their physicality and going out and meeting them early to keep them from getting right around the rim to jump up over us and make plays. So we’ve gotta continue to work on that.”

Next up for YSU is a trip north to the Wolstein Center to take on Cleveland State at 1 p.m. Saturday. The Vikings are the defending conference champions, but will be without star Destiny Leo, who is out for the season with a leg injury.

“They don’t deviate away from what they do,” Nicolais said. “We’re going to see a lot of zone. They’re very aggressive. They’ve got a very talented roster, and they’re good (even) without Leo, so we’ll have our hands full.”

nmadhavan@tribtoday.com