A complete second-half performance by the Youngstown State women's basketball team helped propel the Penguins to an impressive 76-43 win over Stony Brook on Friday night at the Beeghly Center.
YSU outscored the Seawolves 43-19 in the second stanza after holding a nine-point advantage at halftime.
The Penguins shot 52.2 percent from the field in the final half while the Seawolves shot just 23.3 percent. YSU was on fire from behind the 3-point line in the second half making 8-of-11 attempts while SBU failed to connect on any of six attempts from deep in the second half. From the line, YSU was a perfect 11-of-11 in the second half and finished the game making 13-of-14 attempts.
With the victory, YSU improves to 5-1 on the season while Stony Brook falls to 3-3. It was the biggest margin of victory for the program since beating Buffalo 78-44 on Nov. 21, 2006 at the Beeghly Center.
The Penguins opened the second half with a flurry to seize control of the contest. Melissa Thompson scored the first six points of the half for the Guins before Karen Flagg drained a trey forcing the Seawolves to call timeout with 18:38 left in the second half with YSU leading 42-24.
At the 16:12 mark of the second half, the Penguins led just 45-30, but a quick 7-0 spurt extended the advantage to 50-30 following a 3-pointer by Hornberger with 14:49 remaining.
YSU landed the knock-out punch a little later in the half. Leading 54-34, the Guins went on a 16-2 run over the next 5:18 to lead 70-36 with 4:06 left in the contest.
Liz Hornberger led the Penguins with 15 points. Heidi Schlegel contributed 14 points, Brandi Brown had 13 points and Thompson produced 11. For the game, YSU shot 48.1 percent, and shot at a higher clip from behind the 3-point arc making 13-of-25 attempts (52 percent).
Eight Penguins scored, seven had rebounds and five had assists, highlighted by a career-best 10 assists from Shar'Rea Davis. Davis also had seven rebounds and scored six points. Jessica Previlon led Stony Brook with 13 points.
YSU led for the final 18:23 of the first half after falling behind in the open two minutes.
The Penguins led just 8-6 before scoring eight consecutive points in a span of 3:05. Davis had a putback on miss by Hornberger, Schlegel connected on a jumper and Davis and Thompson each scored in the paint for as YSU went ahead 16-6 at the 13:03 mark.
Youngstown State's biggest lead of the half was at the 4:57 mark when Brown converted one-of-two free throws after a Flagarant Foul 1 was called on SBU's Chikilra Goodman. Stony Brook pulled within 28-22 with a 1:27 left following a layup by Sabre Proctor, but a Hornberger trey and Schlegel basket pushed the lead up to 33-22 with 19 ticks left. Proctor drained a long jumper with two seconds left to make the score 33-24 at the break.
YSU shot 44.8 percent from the field making 13-of-29 attempts. The Guins connected on five 3-pointers, three of which came from Hornberger. YSU held the Seawolves to just 34.8 percent shooting (8-of-23).
The Penguins return to the road for their next two contests. YSU is in action on Monday night at IUPUI. Tipoff is set for 7 p.m. The Penguins visit Cincinnati on Wednesday evening.
