— By David Walsh
Marshall dominated Youngstown State from start to finish and breezed to victory, 72-46, in a WNIT Super 16 matchup Friday night in front of 1,791 fans at Zidian Family Center at Beeghly Center in Youngstown, Ohio.
“We had a really good effort tonight,” Marshall coach Juli Fulks said. “This is now our second week where we’ve had really good practices and really good preparation, and I thought you could see that we understood we would need to be really physical inside. Leyocha (Marigney) led that charge with how we defended. We understood they had good shooters around the perimeter. We did such a good job keeping them off balance whey they shot threes.”
The Thundering Herd (25-9) advance to meet Army next in the Great 8. Game time is 6 p.m. Monday at Cam Henderson Center. Army advanced with a win over La Salle.
Marshall’s 2025-26 team now stands alone with the second-most wins in a season in program history, while Youngstown, a Horizon League member, finishes 25-10.
Marshall led 16-13 after one quarter and 36-24 at halftime. The Penguins struggled from the field, making just 9-of-30 shots in the first 20 minutes. It stayed that way in the second half when they were 9 for 32.
Marshall connected on 30-of-67 shots and was 6 for 25 from three.
“One of the good things we did was have an exceptional effort talking on where we were and what we were trying to accomplish,” Fulks said. “It’s hard when you see a zone for the first time and you’re trying to figure out how to attack it. It was physical the first half. Not a lot of fouls were called. They were playing through contact and being able to get to the rim helped so much. They did such a good job and kept us in it.”
In addition to Marigney, Timberlynn Yeast and Blessing King provided strong play on the interior.
Marshall enjoyed a 48-20 edge in paint points and 20-8 advantage on second-chance points. Both teams totaled 16 offensive rebounds.
Fulks also commended the play of Peyton Ilderton, Meredith Maier and Timaya Lewis-Eutsey.
“We had a lot of exceptional parts of that game,” Fulks said.
Lewis-Eutsey, the Sun Belt Conference Newcomer of the Year, led the charge with 20 points. Marigney and Maier added 14 points each. Maier, the Herd’s top three-point shooter, connected on four triples. Marigney hit 7-of-8 shots from the field.
Yeast netted 12, and joined Marigney as Marshall players with seven rebounds.
Sarah Baker led Youngstown State with 14 points on 7-of-12 shooting. It was a long night for several other Penguins, including Llading scorer Casey Santoro, who finished 3 of 11. Paulina Hernandez was 2 of 8, Sophia Gregory 1 of 8 and Erica King 1 of 6.
“They tried to speed it up,”Marigney said. “We could sense it. We kept our composure.”
The outcome made it a long night for Youngstown State assistant Shayna Gore. The Logan native is Marshall’s all-time leader in three-point baskets.
YSU freshman Brooke Adkins, a former standout at Wayne, scored two points across 9 minutes. Ashlynn Van Tassell, who is from Cameron, is injured and did not play.