Nov. 14, 2007
UNIVERSITY PARK, PA. - After winning the WBCA Classic title last weekend, the Lady Lions (3-0) return to the court Thursday night when they travel to Cincinnati to take on Xavier (0-1) in their first road game of the year. The squads will square-off at the Cintas Center at 7 p.m.
The game can be heard on the Penn State Sports Radio Network with Jerry Fisher (play-by-play) and Chris Morelli (analyst) calling action. Locally the game will air on the radio on WMAJ. The audio feed and a link to GameTracker are available at www.GoPSUSports.com.
Thursday's meeting is just the second between the two teams with Penn State winning the only previous contest between the schools last season with a 73-66 overtime decision at the Bryce Jordan Center.
Thursday is also a reunion of sorts for first-year head coach Coquese Washington as she faces-off against former colleague and current Xavier head coach Kevin McGuff. The two were assistants together at Notre Dame for three seasons, including the 2001 National Championship campaign.
After averaging 14.7 points, 6.3 assists and 3.7 rebounds in three WBCA Classic games, junior guard Brianne O'Rourke (Pittsburgh, Pa.) was selected by the media as the Tournament MVP. Her best outing was against Charlotte when she had a career-high 18 points and dished out six assists.
Sophomore guard Tyra Grant (Youngstown, Ohio) garnered All-Tournament team accolades after hitting a game-clinching three-pointer with 15 second left and the shot clock winding down in Saturday's win over Charlotte. She also had a game-high 19 points in Sunday's upset win over #20/21 Pittsburgh. Junior guard Mashea Williams (Erie, Pa.) also earned a spot on the all-tourney team after accounting for 14.7 points and 5.0 rebounds per outing, while senior guard Kam Gissendanner (Clairton, Pa.) is currently leading the team in scoring at a 16.0 per game clip.
Xavier is coming off of its sixth NCAA?Tournament appearance in school history last season and its first trip to the Big Dance since 2003. The Musketeers dropped an 82-71 decision to Florida in their season-opener Friday night. Jerri?Taylor led the Xavier offense with 26 points and four assists, while Amber Harris accounted for 21 points, five rebounds and three steals in the loss.
The Lady Lions continue a short road trip at South Carolina on Tuesday at 7 p.m., before returning to the Jordan Center to face Drexel on Sunday, Nov. 25 at 2 p.m.
This season, Penn State introduced a new seven-game Lady Lion Flex Plan package where fans will receive a ticket to the Duke (Sun., Dec. 2) and Georgetown (Sun., Dec. 9) games and the second annual THINK PINK Day versus Iowa (Sun., Feb. 10), as well as four flex vouchers to redeem in any ticket combination for Big Ten games. Fans can purchase single-game tickets or flex plan packages by visiting the Bryce Jordan Center box office, calling 814-865-5555 or 800-863-3336 or by clicking on the ticket link on www.GoPSUsports.com.