Top of the class, bottom of the conference
Chelsea Miller SPORTS REPORTER
Issue date: 2/4/10 Section: Sports
Any coach would be frustrated at the results the Youngstown State University women's basketball team has been having, and head coach Cindy Martin is no different. Martin, however, stands behind her team's effort this year.
"In order to see how hard our ladies are working, people have to come to the games and practices," she said.
The team, which is 0-20 this season, has only nine games before the Horizon League Tournament and no time to turn their luck around, and with a series of injuries leaving the team shorthanded, a win seems further off for the Penguins.
Bojana (Boki) Dimitrov, junior guard on the team, recently returned after a back and knee injury which left her benched for three weeks.
"We didn't expect to lose 20 games," she said. "But we are down seven or eight players now."
Dimitrov remains optimistic for the rest of the season, though.
"We're expecting to win [against Loyola] obviously," she said.
The last time the Penguins played Loyola, they were defeated 75-49, shooting only 18.8 percent in the second half with 10 of its 22 points coming from the free throw line. Although YSU led early on, turnovers and a weak shooting percentage in the second half eventually led to their defeat.
The team hopes to improve this time and has shown improvement in recent games. However, with 31 turnovers in their last game Saturday against Wright State, ball handling could be a problem for the Penguins.
"I think it's too many [turnovers], but I don't think it's anything we're doing wrong," Martin said. "I think we're continuing to improve … teams are really pressuring us defensively."
Although the team has failed to put up numbers on the court, they have excelled in the classroom. Of the 12 players on the team, 11 have at least a 3.0 cumulative grade point average. As a group, their GPA is 3.29, which ranks them fourth of YSU's 14 teams.
Martin said academics along with participation in community service projects is a key characteristic of this year's team, and focusing on the real prize at hand is what matters in the end.
"It's important to have full-rounded students," Martin said.
"In order to see how hard our ladies are working, people have to come to the games and practices," she said.
The team, which is 0-20 this season, has only nine games before the Horizon League Tournament and no time to turn their luck around, and with a series of injuries leaving the team shorthanded, a win seems further off for the Penguins.
Bojana (Boki) Dimitrov, junior guard on the team, recently returned after a back and knee injury which left her benched for three weeks.
"We didn't expect to lose 20 games," she said. "But we are down seven or eight players now."
Dimitrov remains optimistic for the rest of the season, though.
"We're expecting to win [against Loyola] obviously," she said.
The last time the Penguins played Loyola, they were defeated 75-49, shooting only 18.8 percent in the second half with 10 of its 22 points coming from the free throw line. Although YSU led early on, turnovers and a weak shooting percentage in the second half eventually led to their defeat.
The team hopes to improve this time and has shown improvement in recent games. However, with 31 turnovers in their last game Saturday against Wright State, ball handling could be a problem for the Penguins.
"I think it's too many [turnovers], but I don't think it's anything we're doing wrong," Martin said. "I think we're continuing to improve … teams are really pressuring us defensively."
Although the team has failed to put up numbers on the court, they have excelled in the classroom. Of the 12 players on the team, 11 have at least a 3.0 cumulative grade point average. As a group, their GPA is 3.29, which ranks them fourth of YSU's 14 teams.
Martin said academics along with participation in community service projects is a key characteristic of this year's team, and focusing on the real prize at hand is what matters in the end.
"It's important to have full-rounded students," Martin said.
Be the first to comment on this story