Chicago -- The Youngstown State women's basketball team had a lengthy shooting drought in both halves and couldn't complete a rally attempt in a 70-62 loss to UIC on Thursday evening at the UIC Pavilion.
YSU missed 15 straight shots in the first half, and they it a five-minute scoring drought in the second half after trimming a 19-point deficit down to seven.
Monica Touvelle led YSU with 13 points, and Kenya Middlebrooks added 12. Kelsea Fickiesen scored all nine of her points in the second half and added four assists, four rebounds, a block and two steals. The Penguins shot 55.6 percent in the second half and 36.9 percent overall. UIC held Brandi Brown to one point, 16 below her average entering the game.
Kiara Strickland scored a game and career-high 26 points to lead the Flames, and Jasmine Bailey added 15 points and 13 rebounds. UIC shot 52.8 percent overall and 62.1 percent in the first half.
Touvelle hit a 3-pointer with three seconds left in the first half to cut YSU's deficit to 16, and the Penguins opened the second half on a 9-2 run to make the score 41-32. UIC upped its lead back to 16 on a Bailey bucket with 14:29 remaining, but YSU scored the next eight points to make the score 53-45 at the 10:59 mark.
A Middlebrooks bucket cut the deficit to seven, 61-54, with 7:20 left, but YSU didn't score for more than five minutes. The Penguins missed five straight shots and the front end of two one-and-one opportunities during the dry spell. By the time Middlebrooks ended the drought with a bucket at the 2:08 mark, UIC had taken a 66-54 lead.
After making its first bucket of the game, YSU missed its next 15 field goal. The Penguins trailed by as many as 19 in the opening period as UIC went on a 19-6 run over an eight-minute span.
The Flames scored 13 straight points during YSU's stretch of misses, but a Melissa Thompson bucket and a Heidi Schlegel 3-pointer got the Penguins to within 13-7. The Penguins got within six points three more times, the final time at 20-14, before UIC started to pull away. Following a Macey Nortey 3-pointer at the 8:33 mark, UIC scored nine straight points as part of its 19-6 run. Touvelle hit a triple with 3.4 seconds remaining to cut the margin to 16 at halftime.
Strickland had 15 first-half points for the Flames, which shot 62.1 percent in the opening period. Touvelle had six to lead YSU, which shot 23.7 percent.
UIC's 39 points accounted for the second-highest at halftime total by an opponent this season, behind only Northern Iowa on Nov. 26.
YSU will remain in Chicago to play Loyola on Saturday at 5 p.m. Eastern.
Courtesy: YSU Sports Information
