It was a rough game for a YSU team which has been battered with a litany of injuries. Peters, who was out for the better part of January, was favoring her right arm after one of many hard plays made by the Oakland Golden Grizzlies, who beat the Penguins 86-73 on Sunday afternoon at the Beeghly Center.

“My whole body is banged up right now.” Peters said. “I’ve just got to go the treatment room and get to work on my body.”

YSU had 10 active players Sunday. Freshman guard Quience Hatcher was out sick. Mary Dunn, Amara Chikwe and Lexi Wagner are out for the season. Emma VanZanten just came back for Friday’s come-from-behind win against Detroit Mercy. There are plenty of freshman playing for the Penguins.

“We’re trying to get healthy and we’re playing these games,” YSU coach John Barnes said. “Kids aren’t at their full strength and it’s obvious when you see them out there. There’s nothing we can do about that.

Correspondent photo / Robert Hayes Gabby Lupardus, right, passes the ball inside over Kayla Luchenbach of Oakland on Sunday during the first half of YSU’s 86-73 loss to Oakland.

“Just try to keep developing the young players and make less mental mistakes.”

YSU (13-14, 6-10 Horizon League) had 17 turnovers and the Golden Grizzlies (11-16, 6-10) got 21 points off of those turnovers.

“We’ve got to take care of the ball and be smart,” Peters said.

Both teams had solid offensive performances in the first quarter as YSU and Oakland both shot above 60 percent from the floor.

YSU was 2-of-3 from 3-point range, but Oakland was 5-of-9 from long range and took a 30-24 lead after one quarter.

The Penguins did take a 5-0 lead on Chelsea Olson’s 3-pointer and basket by Peters. The two were the only double-figure scorers for YSU with Olson getting 18 points and Peters having 14. Ny’Dajah Jackson added 11.

Chloe Guingrich led Oakland with 23 points and 10 rebounds, while Kahlaijah Dean and Alona Blackwell each had 13 points. Breanne Beatty put in 11, while Brianna Breedy added 10.

Olson’s lay-up with 6:59 left in the first quarter gave YSU a 12-9 lead. From there, Oakland went on a 9-0 run. The Golden Grizzlies never trailed from that point forward.

Defensively, the Penguins had no answer for the Golden Grizzlies.

“If you’re playing a lot of young players, it’s hard to win,” Barnes said. “We struggled like crazy to beat Detroit the other night. I’m actually surprised it was as close at it was here. We couldn’t stop them at all.”

Oakland kept building on its lead and took a 45-34 lead into halftime as YSU had 11 turnovers. The Golden Grizzlies got 14 points off of YSU’s first-half miscues.

YSU, which cut the deficit to 76-67 with 5:11 left on a Gabby Lupardus bucket, got no closer to Oakland.

The Penguins are tied with Oakland for seventh place in the Horizon League standings. Seeds three through six host those seven through 10 on March 3 in first-round tournament games. YSU can finish no higher than a seventh seed and will play its first-round game on the road since the Penguins and Oakland are three games out of sixth place where Cleveland State and Milwaukee are tied.

YSU has two games left — Thursday at Milwaukee at 8 p.m., and Saturday at Green Bay at 3 p.m.

“We need to come into practice super-focused, ready to go,” Peters said. “If we play like we played on Friday and actually take care of the ball, we could actually pull off the two wins.”