Jan. 17, 2013

Box Score | Postgame Report

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio - Monica Touvelle scored a career-high 23 points off the bench to lead Youngstown State University to a 67-50 victory over the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee women's basketball team Thursday evening at the Beeghly Center.

Senior Sami Tucker scored her 1,000th career point on the night, becoming the 17th player to reach that mark in program history and the fourth to record more than 1,000 points and 600 rebounds in a career.

Video of Tucker's 1,000th Point

The Panthers (4-10, 0-2 Horizon League) were hampered by a season-high 27 turnovers and 34.8 percent shooting from the field. They scored the first basket of the second half to get within six points, but it was all Penguins (11-4, 1-1 Horizon League) after that.

Tucker was sitting at 999 late in the game when she got fouled on a rebound attempt to earn free throws. With 2:17 left on the clock, she sank the first charity toss to hit the milestone on the head.

"Sami is our workhorse and today you could tell that Youngstown was trying to take her out of the game as much as possible," UWM head coach Kyle Rechlicz said. "They double-teamed her every opportunity they could, whether she was driving to the rim or posting up, and she just willed her way to that 1,000th point. In the locker room after the game I told her I couldn't be more proud because it is an honor to score 1,000 points."

Overall, junior Emily Decorah led Milwaukee with 14 points and a team-high five rebounds, making 4-of-9 from three-point range. Senior Sammy Theut added nine points and three rebounds, with Tucker and sophomore Ashley Green netting seven each.

In addition to Touvelle's 23, Brandi Brown was next but was held below her season averages in finishing with 18 points and six rebounds.

"I feel like it happens to us a lot - when we take away someone's best player, someone unexpected steps up and that's the mark of a really good role player," Rechlicz said. "Tucker did a great job of locking her (Brown) up in the first half and then she got into foul trouble. We really did lock into our defense and then they got hot and we had to extend out on their shooters and they went inside."

The victory was a big one for YSU, giving the squad 11 wins in its first 15 games for the first time since 1999-2000. It also improved Youngstown to 6-0 at home this season and snapped Milwaukee's 15-game winning streak in the process, a streak that dated back to February of 2005.

Youngstown State scored seven of the first nine points in the second half to push lead to 13 at 39-26. The advantage was 10 or more the rest of the way and swelled to as many as 27 before the Panthers would close strong. The Penguins shot 53.6 percent (15-for-28) in the second to pull away.

Turnovers and foul trouble hurt the Panthers in the first half, as 12 miscues were converted into 13 points by the Penguins. A back-and-forth start from the first horn, UWM led by as many as three and the game was eventually tied up, 10-10, with just under 12 minutes to play when YSU sank its first three-pointer of the half after nine misses.

"When you are getting your stops on defense is when you need to go on a run on offense and we could just not get that clicking," Rechlicz said. "We had a number of unforced turnovers which is something we talked about in the locker room."

YSU used the long-distance makes from there; piling up a 17-5 run that included three triples in a row to make it 27-15 before forcing a UWM timeout.

Theut hit a three of her own and two more free throws to score five in a row, but the Panthers could not make much of a dent the rest of the period, eventually trailing, 32-24, at intermission.

The Panthers defense keyed on Brown, one of just two players in the Horizon League to be averaging over 20 points and 10 rebounds a game. While they did an excellent job on her (6 points/3 rebounds at half), Touvelle - who came into the game averaging just 6.1 points - went off for 16 in the first half alone.

Up next, the Panthers remain in Ohio and return to the court Saturday afternoon, taking on Cleveland State University in a contest set to start at 1 p.m. CST.