The Youngstown State women's basketball team had an off day shooting, and Oakland made the necessary plays down the stretch to beat the Penguins 56-52 on Sunday afternoon at the Beeghly Center.
Oakland led for more than 18:30 in the first half, but Youngstown State held a 27-26 lead the halftime and built a 42-32 lead late in the third quarter. The Golden Grizzlies scored the final four points of the third quarter and held a 20-10 advantage in the fourth to come away with the four-point victory.
Youngstown State dropped to 18-3 overall and 12-2 in Horizon League play while Oakland improved to 10-9 overall and 8-4 against conference opponents.
Lilly Ritz had game-highs of 15 points and 14 rebounds, and Chelsea Olson had 14 points, five assists and four rebounds. Paige Shy was in double figures off the bench for the second straight game with 13 points, and she added six rebounds. Shy was 3-for-8 from 3-point range, but the rest of the Penguins were a combined 2-for-21.
YSU shot 36% from the field for the game, and it went more than nine minutes between field goals after it took the 42-32 lead in the third quarter. Megan Callahan's 3-pointer at the 2:28 mark cut Oakland's lead to 48-47, and Shy scored on a back-door cut to the basket on YSU's next possession to give the Penguins their final lead at 49-48.
Oakland's Kahlaijah Dean was fouled on a 3-point attempt on the next possession, and she made all three tosses to put Oakland ahead 51-49. Olson split a pair of free throws with 1:14 on the clock to cut the margin to one, and Brianna Breedy hit a pull-up jumper at the end of the shot clock for Oakland with 44.5 seconds left to push the margin back to three.
Shy scored on a driving layup for YSU with 37.3 seconds left, and the Penguins elected to play defense down 53-52. They got the initial stop as Breanne Beatty's jumper was off the mark, but Sydney Gouard chased down the long rebound with 5.2 seconds left. Dean was fouled and made a free throw to put Oakland up 54-52, and YSU turned it over on the inbounds pass after a timeout. Beatty added two free throws with 3.1 seconds left for the final margin.
Breedy led Oakland with 14 points off the bench, and Beatty had 11. The Golden Grizzlies shot 42% overall from the floor, and they went 6-for-12 overall, 2-for-4 from beyond the arc and 6-for-7 from the free-throw line in the fourth quarter.
Oakland scored the first six points and led 11-2 following a Kendall Folley bucket at the 6:19 mark. The Golden Grizzlies were 5-for-6 from the field at that point.
Ritz's bucket at the 7:12 mark accounted for YSU's only points in the first four minutes, but Shy hit 3-pointers on consecutive possessions for the Penguins to shave six points off the nine-point deficit. Her first came on a pass from Olson with 6:00 on the clock, and Malia Magestro assisted on the next one at the 5:23 mark.
After Shy's 3, the teams combined for six points the rest of the quarter. Another Ritz basket got the Penguins within 13-10 with 1:56 remaining, and Oakland's Breanna Perry beat the buzzer a 17-footer to put the Golden Grizzlies up 15-10.
YSU got within one on a Magestro 3-pointer less than 90 seconds into the second quarter, but Oakland had one 3-pointer rattle around and in and another that banked in as it went ahead 23-16 with 4:40 on the clock. The Penguins then scored 11 of the next 13 points to take their first lead of the day at 27-25. Olson tied the score at 23 on a driving layup with 1:39 remaining, and she tied it again at 25 on another basket with 1:04 on the clock. Her two free throws with 25 seconds on the clock gave the Penguins the lead, and YSU led 27-26 at halftime.
YSU shot 34.6% in the first half, but it had seven offensive rebounds that translated into seven second-chance points.
After Oakland started 5-of-6, it made five of its final 16 attempts in the first half.
Oakland scored the first points of the second half to go up 28-27, and Olson scored four more points in the first four minutes to give YSU a 31-28 lead. She sparked a 15-4 run that concluded when a fast-break layup by Ritz at the 1:57 mark put the Penguins up 42-32.
Oakland called timeout and scored the final four points of the quarter, and the Golden Grizzlies carried that momentum into the big fourth quarter. After the Ritz basket that put YSU up by 10, YSU didn't score until Olson made two free throws with 7:18 on the clock. The Penguins led 44-41 at that point, but they went almost five minutes until they scored again on Callahan's 3-pointer that made the score 48-47.
Youngstown State will play six of its eight games in February on the road, beginning with a trip to Wisconsin next week. The Penguins will play at Green Bay on Thursday at 8 p.m. Eastern, and they'll play at Milwaukee on Saturday at 2 p.m. Eastern.
