Scarlet Knights Take Down Lady Lions
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - With a slow start in the first half and a momentum breakthrough in the final minutes of the game, the Nittany Lions were unable to walk away with a win over Rutgers in this afternoon matchup at the Bryce Jordan Center.
“There were some spurs where we came back a little, but we couldn’t really overcome that eight-point deficit from the first quarter” Penn State coach Coquese Washington said.
After a difficult first quarter, Penn State (8-14, 3-8 Big Ten) finally began to pick up the pace. Teniya Page had a total of 11 points in the first half with nine of those points coming from the second quarter alone. Candice Agee helped offensively as well picking up five points in the second quarter down low for the Lady Lions.
Penn State’s struggles in the first half were due largely to sloppy turnovers, unnecessary fouls and multiple missed shots. The Lady Lions are known for playing at a fast speed, but realized that slowing down and gaining composure was necessary to gain their rhythm back on shooting and decrease the amount of turnovers.
Brianna Banks picked up her third foul in the beginning of the second causing her to sit out for most of the second quarter. As one of the Lady Lions leading scorers, this caused a slight setback in shooting, but was easily filled as Teniya Page stepped up and delivered to make the score 36-26 Rutgers at half time.
“Having Brianna out definitely certainly changes our aggressiveness on offense,” Washington said. She really brings it and takes a lot of attention away, which opens things up for other people. When she’s not in the game it definitely takes one of our biggest weapons away.”
Penn State emerged as a new team in their second half performance. Lindsey Spann picked up nine points in the second half on offense and showed aggression on defense by forcing turnovers and putting heavy pressure on the Scarlet Knights. Peyton Whitted was also pivotal for the Lady Lions as she picked up six points back to back to accumulate for a total of nine points in the second half.
Although Penn State emerged refreshed for the second half of the game, the team still couldn’t shut down Rutgers who outmatched the Lady Lions in field goal percentages. Rutger’s Kahleah Cooper put up 20 points in the game while Tyler Scaife answered with fifteen points to give the Scarlet Knights a road win over Penn State 74-62.
“I think there’s a number of different things to improve on,” Washington said. “It’s just an overall growth and understanding of what’s best for us as a team, how we need to play and how we need to make that work which is something that’s still a work in progress for us as a team.”
The Lady Lions are on the road this week for Thursday’s matchup against Michigan State in East Lansing. Tipoff is set for 6:30 p.m.
Ellie French is a freshman majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact her, email epf5072@psu.edu.
