The women’s basketball team could not keep up with the undefeated Division I Youngstown State University last Saturday when the Penguins trampled the Yeowomen by almost 50 points, ending in a final score of 92–43. Despite the tough loss, senior captain Christina Marquette managed to set the all-time school record for rebounds.

“We started off well. I think we actually scored the first basket of the game, so we were beating them for a couple seconds,” said Marquette. “Offensively, we were getting in the flow, and at about the 10-minute mark, [Youngstown] went on a run. We couldn’t stop them from scoring, and pretty much from there on it was all downhill.”

Marquette tallied five points for Oberlin, but her real feat took the form of a season-high 12 rebounds, pushing her total career rebounds to 751. Saturday’s game moved Marquette past the previous record-holder Alyssa Clark, OC ’09, who made 746 rebounds over the course of her career from 2006–2009.

However, Marquette proved to be the lone bright spot for the Yeowomen as the game fell out of Oberlin’s control early. Just 10 minutes into the contest, the Yeowomen appeared visibly fatigued and were unable to keep pace with the Penguins. Junior guard Lindsey Bernhardt said that fitness ultimately hurt her squad in the matchup.

“After our team started getting tired, our execution started to fall apart,” said Bernhardt.

The Penguins racked up 20 points in a six-minute stretch in the first half, eliminating any hope the Yeowomen were still clinging to, and concluded the half with a 40–19 lead.

Marquette attributed Oberlin’s downfall to the home team’s ability to efficiently capitalize on scoring opportunities and turnovers. Unlike Bernhardt, Marquette said that her team maintained its ability to execute in tough circumstances throughout the half.

“Overall, we did well executing, but every single time we made a mistake, they scored or got a steal,” said Marquette.

Marquette went on to praise her team for its mental toughness and tenacity heading into the second half, despite the tumultuous open half.

“It’s really easy to give up when you’re down 20 points, and we didn’t do that,” she said. “I thought in the second half we went to the boards really hard. We made some adjustments to match up better with their size, and we didn’t give up.”

Junior center Katie Lucaites, who battled past the Penguins to put seven points on the board, also commended her teammates for keeping their heads up after a tough battle against the Division I Penguins.

“We lost by a lot, but I think it was a really good experience for our team, and I think that we improved from having played the game,” said Lucaites. “I’m very confident that if we play any other team on our schedule with the energy we played with against Youngstown State, we can win. I think it was a really effective and productive game.”

Looking forward, Head Coach Kerry Jenkins said that the Youngstown game was a learning experience more than anything else, and he plans on using the experience as a lesson in future games against conference competition.

“We fought back and handled the pressure and the intensity and the pace fairly well,” said Jenkins. “And the good thing for us, as I told the players afterward, is [that] that is the best team we’re going to play all year. So now we know what to expect moving forward. We took a lot of positives from it.”

Next, the Yeowomen will head into a North Coast Athletic Conference double-header when they play The College of Wooster in an away game on Friday night, followed by a home contest against DePauw University at 3 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 13.