Cleveland, Ohio – Brandi Brown and Heidi Schlegel combined for 46 points, and the Youngstown State women's basketball team beat Cleveland State 72-63 for a big Horizon League road victory on Thursday at the Wolstein Center.
Brown matched her season high with 28 points and added 17 rebounds, and Schlegel had a season-best 18 points and eight rebounds.
The Penguins scored 11 of the first 12 points of the game and led from start to finish. Cleveland State cut the margin to two with less than seven minutes left, but YSU scored the next seven points and led by at least five the rest of the way. It was the Penguins' first win at the Wolstein Center since Feb. 13, 2006.
YSU is now 12-5 overall and 2-2 in Horizon League play while Cleveland State drops to 10-8 overall and 2-3 against the league.
Youngstown State held Shalonda Winton to 14 points, six below her season average coming in. The senior forward, who was averaging 22 points, was limited to four points in the second half. The Penguins also forced Cleveland State into 20 turnovers and matched their season high with 38 points in the paint.
After the Penguins' seven-point run that put them up 65-56, Cleveland State scored the next four points and had YSU down to two seconds on the shot clock. YSU called timeout, and Brown scored her 28th point on an isolation play to put the Penguins up 67-60 with 2:20 left. YSU split its final 10 free throw attempts to keep Cleveland State from gaining.
Brown was 11-for-26 from the field and 5-for-6 from the charity stripe. Her free-throw attempt with 5:06 left in the contest gave her a school record 546 attempts. Schlegel was an efficient 5-for-8 from the field and 7-of-9 from the free-throw line.
Cori Coleman led Cleveland State with 16 points, and Kiersten Green joined Winton with 14 points.
Cleveland State narrowly outshot the Penguins 44.2 percent to 42.1 percent, but YSU made one more field goal and six more free throws. YSU held scoring edges of 38-30 in the paint, 16-9 off turnovers, 17-7 on second-chance points and 24-9 in bench points.
Youngstown State scored 11 of the first 12 points in the contest and led by as many as 15 in the first half, but Cleveland State got the margin down to eight at halftime as it held the Penguins to four points in the final 5:27.
YSU scored four points in the first 20 seconds and the first six points of the game, and the Guins led 11-1 on a Brown bucket with 17:05 left. A Schlegel 3-pointer gave the Penguins a 29-14 lead with just over six minutes left, but Cleveland State was able to chip away at the lead with Winton on the bench with two fouls. Winton and Schlegel traded two free throws to make the score 31-16 at the 5:27 mark, and the Vikings closed out the half on an 11-4 run.
Brown nearly had a double-double in the first half with 11 points and eight rebounds, and Schlegel had nine points at the break. Winton had 10 points, and Coleman and Green had seven apiece for Cleveland State.
Youngstown State will host Loyola on Saturday at 4:35 p.m. at Beeghly Center. The contest will be the second half of a doubleheader with the Penguins' men's team.
