Lady Lions Knock Off Michigan State
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa -- The Penn State Lady Lions Basketball team downed the Michigan State Spartans 74-59 at the Bryce-Jordan Center.
The Lady Lions got off to a quick start in the game and led for over 36 of the 40 minutes. In the first quarter, Jaida Travascio-Green went on a 10-0 run by herself to give the Lady Lions a decent lead, and it remained more or less the same for the rest of the contest.
From the beginning of the game, it seemed apparent that the Lady Lions were determined to attack the rim to get good looks and get some of the Spartan bigs in foul trouble. It worked out in both facets as the Lady Lions made a killing at the line and left a smattering of Spartan post players with three or four fouls.
On the other hand, Michigan State seemed more than content to shoot from the outside, and though they had some success, they were at quite a disadvantage. Taryn McCutcheon hit six threes for the Spartans and wound up leading all scorers, but the Spartans likely would have been better served to try and work the ball inside like they normally do. The Lady Lions wound up shooting 23 more free throws than the Spartans.
There were two main areas where the Lady Lions won this game; bench play and turnovers.
Penn State got a big lift off their bench, particularly from Siyeh Frazier and Alisia Smith. Smith had nine points while Frazier poured in 14, tying her season high. Frazier also grabbed five rebounds and swiped the ball twice in what was a very aggressive performance on her part.
When asked about it after the game, Siyeh said she usually goes into games with an aggressive mindset. “It just works for me”, she said. It doesn’t always go as well as it did today, but it was a huge factor in Penn State winning the game.
Coach Coquese Washington has been happy with her bench all year. The bench scored 26 points, which doubled up the tally the Spartan bench managed. Coach Washington said that while her bench’s impact isn’t always something that shows up on the stat sheet, it is nice to see when it happens.
The Lady Lions were active defensively, with and without the full-court press. Jaida Travascio-Green caused the small Spartans backcourt some problems with her height and length at the head of the press. In the halfcourt, the guards went after the ball aggressively, especially Amari Carter. Carter had five steals herself, and Teniya Page and Siyeh Frazier combined for five more.
By the end of the game, the Spartans had turned the ball over 20 times, and Penn State made them pay for it with 14 fast break points. Despite the advantages the Spartans had on the glass, if you turn the ball over that frequently it will be very hard to win. They’ll probably leave Happy Valley knowing that they deserved the result they got.
Patrick Murphy is a freshman majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, email pqm5315@psu.edu.
