Brown Goes Down as Lady Pens Fall at Detroit

by YSU

Friday, Mar 8, 2013 8:49 am

Detroit -- The Youngstown State women's basketball team trailed by eight at halftime and couldn't make a push to catch Detroit in the second half in falling 62-48 at Calihan Hall in the regular-season finale.

The Penguins trailed by 13 with just over 10 minutes left but hung around and trimmed the deficit to six with 7:18 remaining on two Shar'Rae Davis free throws. They still faced just a seven-point hole with 4:28 left when Detroit scored the next seven points to put the game out of reach.

Davis scored 16 points in the second half, and Liz Hornberger scored all 12 of her points in the first 17 minutes. The Penguins played the final 27 minutes without leading scorer Brandi Brown, who sat out for precautionary purposes after rolling her ankle in the first half.

YSU finished the regular season 21-8 overall and 11-5 in conference play. With Loyola losing at Green Bay on Thursday, Youngstown State will be the No. 2 seed in next week's Horizon League Tournament. The Penguins will host the No. 7 seed on Wednesday at 7:05 p.m. at Beeghly Center. The opponent is yet to be determined.

Shareta Brown led all scorers with 19 points and Senee Shearer had 17 for the Titans, who improved to 16-11 overall and 9-6 in Horizon League play. They are now tied for third place with Loyola with each team having one game remaining.

Youngstown State had a scoring drought of nearly six minutes in the first half, and Detroit led by as many as 10 in the opening period before taking an eight-point advantage into the locker room.

The Penguins led 8-6 on a 3-pointer by Melissa Thompson with 15:28 left, but Detroit scored the next seven points to go up 13-8 with 13:03 remaining. Brandi Brown made two free throws to stop the run, and Hornberger nailed to 3-pointers in just over a minute to tie the score with 9:25 left. Brandi Brown came out of the game with 7:27 left, and the Penguins did not score again until Hornberger's old-fashioned three-point play with 3:37 remaining.

Detroit posted nine straight points during YSU's drought, and its largest lead of the period came on a Shareta Brown lay-up with 2:43 left that made the score 29-19. Thompson hit two free throws with 57.1 seconds left for the final points of the period.

Hornberger had 12 points in the first half to lead all scorers, and Shearer had 11 for Detroit.

The 62 points by Detroit were the fewest it scored all season at home, and the Penguins forced them into 22 turnovers. Amanda Barger guarded Shareta Brown most of the time as the Penguins did not have a post active after Brandi Brown exited. The size difference helped Detroit hold a 40-22 edge in rebounding and a 30-18 advantage in the paint

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