- Box Score
| Junior guard Kam Gissendanner had a season-high 18 points in Thursday's heartbreaking loss to Illinois in the Lady Lions' Big Ten opener. PSU dropped a 74-65 decision to the Illini in overtime. |
CHAMPAIGN, ILL.; December 28, 2006 - The Lady Lions (7-7, 0-1 Big Ten) and Illinois (11-2, 1-0) did not disappoint the fans at Assembly Hall Thursday night in the Big Ten opener for both teams. The Illini converted on back-to-back three-point plays and iced the game with perfect free throw shooting in the final two minutes to hand Penn State a heartbreaking 74-65 overtime loss. This is the second overtime game this season for PSU, marking the first time the Lady Lions have played in two overtime games in a season since the 2002-03 campaign. Kam Gissendanner (Clairton, Pa.) had a season-high 18 points to lead the Lady Lions, while senior post player Amanda Brown (Kennett Square, Pa.) notched her fourth double-double of the season with 10 points and 16 rebounds. Freshman guard Tyra Grant (Youngstown, Ohio) was the third Lady Lion in double figures with 14 tallies.
The Lady Lions jumped out to the early lead in the extra period on a Grant three-pointer and held the lead at three points for the first 2:30 of the overtime session. However, Lori Bjork converted on a three-point play to give the Illini a two-point lead with 1:43 remaining. After a Penn State turnover, Lacey Simpson was fouled as her lay-up rolled around the rim and in for a second-straight three-point play that made the Illinois lead five points. The Lady Lions would get no closer as Illinois made all eight of its free throws in overtime to ice the game.
Grant??s jumper with 1:20 remaining in regulation gave Penn State a four point lead, but the Illini would answer with a jumper by Jenna Smith to move the lead back to two points. Bjork was fouled with 32 seconds remaining and made both free throws to tie the game at 56-56. Penn State had a chance to win the game at the end of regulation, but the Illini intercepted a hand-off to Gissendanner and took the ball the other way where they could not convert on any of their three chances in the paint in the last six seconds.
After a sluggish first half that saw that Lady Lions trailing by nine points at the buzzer, Penn State came out of fire in the second half with a 17-6 run to take the lead (36-34) on a Brown lay-up from Grant with 13:29 remaining in the game. Brown, who was held scoreless in the opening frame, scored four of PSU??s first six points of the second period and six overall during the period-opening spurt, while Grant chipped in five points during that time.
The two squads exchanged baskets before the Lady Lions turned up the pressure and extended the lead to seven points (46-39) with less than nine minutes remaining in the contest. The lead was short-lived as Illinois used a 9-2 run to tie the game at 48-48 on a Jenna Smith lay-up with 5:32 remaining. The two evenly match teams continued to exchange the lead with neither team establishing more than a four-point margin over the final five minutes.
In the opening period, the Lady Lions fell behind 8-2 with only a Gissendanner field goal to show for their efforts in the first five minutes of the game. PSU cut the lead to 14-11 at the 8:29 mark after a 12-3 run that saw Brianne O??Rourke (Pittsburgh, Pa.) score five points and Courtney Molinaro (Bethlehem, Pa.) convert on a lay-up and two free throws. However, the Fighting Illini, led by Bjork??s nine-straight points, scored 11 of the next 13 points to extend the lead to 25-13. A pair of Gissendanner jumpers and two free throws by Molinaro helped the Lady Lions enter the locker room at the half trailing by a 27-19 margin. Only three players, Gissendanner (8 pts.), Molinaro (6) and O??Rourke (5), scored for the Lady Lions in the opening period.
Molinaro had a season-high eight points on 2-of-3 shooting and a 4-for-4 effort from the free throw line. O??Rourke had a solid all-around game with seven points, five rebounds, four assists and two steals.
Bjork led Illinois with 24 points, while Danyel Crutcher had a double-double with 10 points and 14 rebounds.
The Lady Lions close out their four-game road trip on New Year??s Eve Day at #13/13 Purdue before coming home to face Northwestern on Jan. 4 in their Big Ten home opener.
Single-game tickets and ??Sunday FunDay?? mini-plan packages for the Lady Lions may be purchased by visiting the ticket section of GoPSUsports.com or by calling the ticket office at 814-865-5555. Women's single game tickets are $12 for adults and $5 for students and youth (under 18). Mini ticket plans are also available.