YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio --- The Golden Eagles women's basketball team battled against a Division I opponent and gave them everything they could handle for more than 30 minutes of action, putting up an impressive showing against Youngstown State despite falling 69-52 in an exhibition. The gap between the teams was just a one-possession deficit deep into the fourth quarter as Clarion's tenacious defense caused fits for the Penguins.
 
Clarion's defense proved to be a thorn in the Penguins' side for most of the night, forcing 20 YSU turnovers and frustrating them all night long. As a result, the Golden Eagles stayed in the game against the Penguins for more than 35 minutes, not allowing them to pull away until late.
 
Hannah Wilkerson scored a team-high 16 points off the bench, shooting 5-of-10 from the field and going 6-of-7 from the free throw line in just 24 minutes. Autumn Taylor added 14 points, four rebounds and three steals. The glass proved to be the source of Youngstown's State's biggest advantage, with the Penguins out-rebounding Clarion 45-29.
 
The Golden Eagles showed no signs of backing down to the Penguins in the first quarter, going toe-to-toe with Youngstown State and taking an early lead on their Division I opponent. The Penguins took a 15-9 lead with just under four minutes to play in the first quarter, but Clarion responded with a 9-2 run to pull into the lead. Hannah Wilkerson scored four straight points, including a putback on her own miss to make it 15-13, and Claire Noble tied it up with a bucket at the 2:39 mark.
 
Wilkerson scored her eighth point of the first quarter with 1:02 remaining in the period, converting a second-chance opportunity presented to her by DayLynn Thornton's offensive rebound, and Thornton made a foul shot just before the end of the quarter to make it an 18-17 game. Tearra Cook put her team back ahead early in the second quarter with a score and Zoe Guice tied it up again just past the halfway point of the quarter, converting an and-one that knotted things up at 23-23.
 
The Penguins pulled away near the end of the first half, capping a 10-2 run with a Haley Thierry layup that made it 33-25. Autumn Taylor made a big shot just before the buzzer, draining a three-pointer well past the arc near half-court to cut it to five points at the halftime break.
 
Things continued to drift the way of Youngstown State early in the third, though the turnover-hungry defense of the Golden Eagles kept the pressure on the Penguins and eventually led to an 8-0 run for Clarion. Guice scored a transition bucket after Cook too the ball from YSU's Faith Burch, making it 41-36, and Siara Conley drove to the hoop and scored with 2:07 left to go in the third to cut the deficit to 41-38. All told Clarion wrapped the third quarter on a 10-4 run, pulling to within 45-40 through 30 minutes.
 
The Golden Eagles continued to battle in the fourth, cutting it to 48-45 on a driving layup by Wilkerson, but a 7-1 run by the Penguins increased the lead to nine points by the final media timeout. YSU built a double-digit lead after a three-pointer by Jewel Watkins, and the Penguins rode a hot streak to the end of the game to subdue the Golden Eagles.
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