Correspondent photo / Robert Hayes. YSU senior guard Jewel Watkins shoots and scores a 3-pointer during the second half against Oakland on Sunday at the Beeghly Center. Watkins played all 40 minutes and scored a game-high 22 points, including her 1,000th career point.

YOUNGSTOWN — For Youngstown State senior guard Jewel Watkins, the No. 19 has special significance.

Her father passed away on Nov. 19, 2019, and coming into Sunday’s game against Oakland, she needed just 19 points to reach 1,000 for her college career.

“I didn’t really try to focus on it, I just let the game come to me,” Watkins said. “I didn’t want to force it or try to get it because then that’s when you don’t, so I just let it happen.”

As she stepped to the free-throw line in the fourth quarter, Watkins needed to knock down both to hit the milestone. She got the roll to drain the first for her 18th point, and then she calmly swished the second for her 19th point Sunday afternoon.

While eclipsing 1,000 career points, Watkins finished with 22 points to help lead the Penguins to a decisive and much-needed 73-56 victory over the Golden Grizzlies.

“It definitely meant a lot. It’s crazy that I needed 19 points,” Watkins said. “Today is (also) the one-year anniversary of my dog passing. So it just felt good today.”

Watkins’ value to the Penguins this season cannot be understated.

In addition to being the team’s leading scorer at 14.1 points per game, she’s often given the assignment of guarding the opposing team’s best player or leading scorer on the defensive end.

Against the Golden Grizzlies, Watkins spent much of the game guarding Oakland’s leading scorer Maddy Skorupski. Just like she did with Purdue Fort Wayne’s Lauren Ross and Northern Kentucky’s Macey Blevins, she largely shut Skorupski down, holding her to six points on 3-for-11 shooting.

“Honestly, I enjoy it. I enjoy guarding the best player and just being locked in and focused on their plays, what they’re running and what my girl is doing,” Watkins said. “Just making sure I do all the right things, I know it’s going to put me in the right positions to be successful.”

Watkins has also played far-and-away the most minutes of anyone on the team this season.

But despite all the responsibility that YSU’s coaching staff puts on her shoulders, she’s been infallible in the face of it all.

“She’s kind of hitting her stride right now, which is awesome to see,” head coach Melissa Jackson said. “She’s just getting better, she’s taking the coaching and she’s watching a lot of film. She’s scoring in multiple ways, and it was tough — because of Oakland switching defenses and unconventional defenses — to run a lot of sets. When we did go to our sets, specifically for Jewel, her number was called and she responded, especially in that second quarter.

“I think she’s focusing on the defensive end — she’s getting some steals, which is really helping us as a whole defensively. She’s really growing her game, but I think it goes back to the time and effort she’s putting into it.”

After a tight, back-and-forth first half, YSU finally found its rhythm to end the second quarter. The Penguins held Oakland scoreless over the final five minutes, as YSU went on a 13-0 run to build a 14-point lead at halftime.

Watkins scored seven of her points during that stretch, knocking down a three in transition, as well as a pair of layups.

“Our defense and rebounding,” Jackson said. “We asked a lot of (the post players) defensively tonight. Got away from our traditional ball screen defense because we knew that Oakland was a really good pull-up jump shooting team, and we wanted to take that away. So with the short prep that we had, I was really happy with our post group and how they responded there.”

The Penguins maintained their double-digit lead in the second half. Each time the Golden Grizzlies tried to make a run, YSU had an answer.

In addition to Watkins’ 22 points, Malia Magestro finished with 19 points and five assists, while Haley Thierry added 10 points and seven rebounds. The Penguins shot 47.2% overall and hit 10 threes at an efficient 55.6% clip, with Watkins and Magestro combining for nine of those 3-pointers.

“We’ve been having defense be our identity for a while now, and we’ve been really focusing on that in the last three days of practice,” Thierry said. “So being able to translate that into our offense helped us a lot.”

The Penguins now continue their two-game homestand against Purdue Fort Wayne on Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. at the Beeghly Center.

“It was a big win today — finally got out of that losing drought,” Thierry said. “Being able to go back and look at the film next practice, digest it and put it towards the next practice day and focus on Purdue Fort Wayne. I just know we’re hungry and everyone’s doubting us right now, but as long as our team believes in ourselves, then that’s all that matters.”