Valparaiso shot just 23.2%
from the floor on Saturday afternoon, including 2-of-20 (10%) from three-point
range, falling to Youngstown State 54-38 at the Beeghly Center in Youngstown,
Ohio to close out the regular season.
“Hopefully we got the bad
shooting game out of our system,” head coach Keith Freeman said. “We took
some hurried shots early and then tried to over penetrate. We have to make shots.”
Valpo struggled shooting the
basketball to open the game. The
Crusaders went until the 12:24 mark without scoring until Lauren Kenney (Mooresville,
Ind./Mooresville H.S.) made a
pair of free throws. By that time, Youngstown State had opened a 13-0 lead.
The Crusaders missed their
first 13 shots from the floor, falling behind 18-2, before a Kenney lay-in at
the 9:48 mark gave Valpo its first field goal.
The Penguins had been getting to the boards as well, outrebounding the
Crusaders 14-3 at that point.
Valpo used a 7-0 run to cut
the deficit to single digits when Betsy
Adams (Monticello,
Ind./Twin Lakes H.S.) drained a three-pointer
at the 7:05 mark to make it 20-11.
The Penguins held the
Crusaders scoreless the final 4:40 of the half, but managed just one basket
during that time, and took a 27-15 lead into the locker room.
Valpo shot just 24% (6-of-25)
from the floor in the opening 20 minutes, including just 1-of-11 (9.1%) from
long range. Youngstown State
made 54.5% of its first half shots and outrebounded the Crusaders 20-10.
The second half was just as
much of a struggle shooting, as the Crusaders started just 1-for-10 from the
field. Valpo closed to within nine,
33-24, following a steal and score by Agnieszka
Kulaga (Tarnow,
Poland/I Liceum
Ogolnoksztalcace H.S.) and a putback basket by Ashley Varner (South Bend, Ind./Washington
H.S.).
Youngstown State answered with back-to-back triples by Camisha
Alexander. Another triple by Kenya
Middlebrooks made it 42-24 with 9:06 to play and the Crusaders could not
recover.
Kenney led the Crusaders with
10 points while Whitney Farris (Kokomo, Ind./Kokomo
H.S.) had a game-high eight rebounds.
Alexander led Youngstown State (3-26, 1-17 Horizon) with 12
points, all on threes, while Nikita LaFleur had eight points and seven
rebounds.
The Penguins shot 48% from
the floor for the game and 41.2% (7-of-17) from three-point range.
“We’re one of the top
three-point shooting teams in the nation (13th) and they were
shooting like 25% from there,” said Freeman.
“They shoot 40% and we were 10%.
The bottom line is we didn’t make open shots and we have to make open
shots.”
Valparaiso (16-13, 10-8) will host the quarterfinals of the
Horizon League Championship on Wednesday evening at the Athletics-Recreation Center. The Crusaders will be the tournament’s fourth
seed and host fifth-seeded Wright
State beginning at 7:05
p.m. The action can be send live on the
Horizon League Network as well as on WVUR (95.1-FM, Valparaiso).
Game Notes: Youngstown State leads
the all-time series 14-11 and is 8-3 in Youngstown
… Launa Hochstetler (Berlin, Ohio/Hiland
H.S.) played in her 117th game as a Crusader, tied with Carie
Wickham (1996-2001) and Marlous Nieuwveen (1998-2002) for eighth all-time at
Valpo.