Dec. 6, 2008
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UNIVERSITY PARK, PA. - A slow start on Saturday afternoon spelled doom for the Penn State Lady Lions (4-4) as they dropped a 67-66 decision to Dayton (6-3) at the Bryce Jordan Center, snapping a 16-game non-conference home winning streak. Penn State missed its first 10 shots and shot just 25.0% from the field with nine turnovers in the first half
The Lady Lion defense forced 24 Dayton turnovers and registered 14 steals, making it four-straight games that Penn State has notched 10 or more steals. It is the first time since the 2004-05 season that a Penn State team had four consecutive games with 10 or more thefts.
Sophomore post Janessa Wolff (Park Rapids, Minn.) led three Lady Lions in double figures with 17 points, including her first career three-pointer. She also added five rebounds, two assists, two steals and a blocked shot. Junior Tyra Grant (Youngstown, Ohio), who connected on a three-pointer in traffic with two seconds left to make it a one-point game, had 14 points and two assists. Sophomore Julia Trogele (Devon, Pa.) accounted for 12 points, a team-high eight rebounds and two steals, while seniors Brianne O'Rourke (Pittsburgh, Pa.) and Mashea Williams added nine points apiece. Williams notched four steals on the game for the second-straight game.
It was a sloppy affair early as Dayton turned the ball over five times and the Lady Lions missed their first seven shots from the field in the first three minutes and 45 seconds of the game as the Flyers took a 5-0 lead. A pair of Grant free throws got Penn State, which missed 17 of its first 18 shots of the game, on the board with just over 16 minutes left in the half.
Dayton extended its lead to 13 points (19-6) at the 10:12 mark before a pair Wolff followed by a steal and basket by O'Rourke and two freebies by Grant cut the Flyer lead to seven (19-12) with 9:24 left in the half. However, back-to-back buckets by Dayton's Patrice Lalor gave the Flyers a 24-12 lead with eight and a half minutes to play in the period.
After the two teams swapped baskets, the Lady Lions got a jumper by Meredith Monroe (Olney, Md.) and a three-pointer by O'Rourke to pull within seven points at 26-19, but the Flyers responded with a three of their own to bring the lead back to 10 with five minutes to play in the half. An Emily Phillips (South Bend, Ind.) triple brought it back to 29-22 at the three-minute mark before the squads swapped layups and Raterman capped the scoring for the half to send the teams into the locker room with Dayton leading 35-26.
Trogele opened the second half with a layup to jump-start the Penn State offense and cut the deficit to seven points (35-28). After a Raterman jumper, the Lady Lions got a Trogele layup and an O'Rourke three-pointer in transition to move within five points at 37-32 with 16:30 left in the half. After a Dayton timeout, the Flyers got a bucket by Ross followed by rebound followed by a putback by Wolff to keep the margin at five points.
The Flyers had a series of offensive rebounds that eventually led to a jumper by Kristin Daugherty and followed that up with a three-pointer by Lalor to extend their lead to 44-34 with 13:25 remaining. But the Lady Lions would close within six points thanks to a Williams steal that led to a Wolff layup and another Wolff layup off of a pass by Phillips.
Penn State sliced into the Dayton lead even further with a steal by Williams and fastbreak layup by Trogele to make it a four-point game at 44-40 at the 11:55 mark. After a solid defensive possession and a series of offensive rebounds, Trogele connected on a 15-footer and Wolff drained a hook shot in the middle of the paint to make it a one-point Dayton lead (45-44) with 10:13 to play. On the ensuing possession, Wolff stole the ball from Lalor, which resulted in a Williams jumper to give Penn State its first lead of the game at 46-45 at the 9:35 mark.
Daughtery drained a shot from long range and Casey Nance converted on a layup to put Dayton back on top by four points (50-46) as the Lady Lion momentum stalled. Williams made one of two free throws, but Raterman responded with a rebound and putback that sparked a 6-0 spurt by the Flyers to make it a 56-47 game with four and a half minutes to play.
Grant connected on a jumper on the Lions' next possession, but the Flyers drained a three to expand the lead to 10 points (59-49). The squads swapped a pair of three-pointers before Williams hit on a jumper and Trogele grabbed a rebound and made the putback to make it a 62-56 game with less than two minutes to play.
A pair of Daugherty free throws brought the Dayton lead back to eight points, but O'Rourke converted on a steal and layup with just over a minute to play. On the ensuing Dayton possession, Renee Womack (Lansdale, Pa.) drew the offensive foul on Raterman, which allowed Wolff to drain her first career three-pointer and cut the deficit to three points (64-61) with 50 seconds left. After running the shot clock down to just two seconds, Raterman drew the foul and made one of two free throws to make it a two-possession game. Grant was fouled on her drive to the basket with seven seconds left and converted on both free throws to make it a 65-63 game.
The Lady Lions had a solid press on the inbounds pass and forced a jumpball, but unfortunately for PSU the possession arrow favored the Flyers. On the ensuing inbounds pass, O'Rourke fouled Raterman, who made both free throws to make it a four-point game (67-63). Grant drained a three-pointer in traffic at the buzzer for the final margin.
GAME NOTES: The Lady Lions accumulated 14 steals, making this the fourth game in a row with more than 10 steals. The last time Penn State had four consecutive games with 10 or more steals was during the 2004-05 season (2/17/05-3/4/05)...This is the Lady Lions' first non-conference loss at the Bryce Jordan Center since Dec. 9, 2005 against Marquette, snapping the team's 16-game winning streak in non-conference wins at the Bryce Jordan Center...This is Penn State's first loss at home since 2/28/08 against Ohio State...PSU is now 131-18 against current Atlantic 10 members...Janessa Wolff scored a game-high 17 points, including her first career three-pointer, and pulled down five rebounds...Tyra Grant scored 14 points and made all six of her free throws...Emily Phillips had a career-high three assists...Mashea Williams had four steals for the second time in as many games since returning from a hand injury...Evelyn Lewis had a career-high three steals.
The Lady Lions will remain home to face Bucknell on Tuesday, Dec. 9 at 6:30 p.m., before traveling to New York City and Madison Square Garden for the Third Annual Maggie Dixon Classic. The Lady Lions will face the top-ranked Connecticut Huskies at 2 p.m., as part of a doubleheader. Both Maggie Dixon Classic games will be televised on ESPNU. For information on Lady Lion Basketball tickets, call the Penn State ticket office at 814-865-5555.
The 2009 WBCA Pink Zone at Penn State proudly supported by Mimi Barash Coppersmith (formerly known as THINK PINK Day) will take place on Sunday, Feb. 15 at 3 p.m., as the Lady Lions take on Iowa in the Bryce Jordan Center. The game can be seen on www.bigtennetwork.com. The first two Pink Zone events have raised more than $50,000 for breast cancer awareness. This year's fundraising efforts will benefit the Penn State Hershey Breast Cancer Institute, the Pennsylvania Breast Cancer Coalition and the Kay Yow/WBCA Cancer Fund. For more information on the Pink Zone at Penn State, visit the official Pink Zone website at www.gopsusports.com/pinkzone.