March 3, 2009
2009 Big Ten Tournament Central
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UNIVERSITY PARK, PA. - The Penn State Lady Lions (11-17, 6-12) finished the regular season tied for seventh, but will serve as the eighth seed in the 2009 Big Ten Women's Basketball Tournament beginning on Thursday, March 5 after losing the tiebreaker to Wisconsin.. The Lions kick off their tournament against ninth-seeded Illinois (9-20, 5-13) on Thursday at approximately 5 p.m., at Conseco Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, Ind. The game will be televised on the Big Ten Network. The winner of the Penn State-Illinois game will go on to face top-ranked Ohio State on Friday at 6 p.m.
TOURNAMENT HISTORY: The Lady Lions are 20-12 all-time in the Big Ten Tournament, including a 2-2 mark in the first round. Last season, the Lady Lions dropped a 64-54 decision to seventh-seeded Michigan in the first round of the Tournament. The Lady Lions have won the Big Ten Tournament twice (1995 & 1996).
ALL-TIME VS. THE ILLINI: The Lady Lions lead the all-time series with Illinois by a 23-12 margin, including a 3-1 in Big Ten Tournament games. Penn State swept the regular-season series this year with a 54-51 win at home and a 67-56 victory in Champaign.
LAST TIME VS. ILL: In a match-up of the two teams tied for eighth place, the Penn State Lady Lions used a balanced scoring effort to register a 67-56 win over Illinois at Assembly Hall on Feb 22. Sophomore Tyra Grant led four Lady Lions in double figures with 16 points. Grant also pulled down four rebounds and registered three steals in the win. Janessa Wolff came off of the bench to score 15 points to go along with five rebounds and two blocks. Wolff was stellar from the free throw line for the Lions as she was 9-for-10 from the charity stripe.
TV: The game will be televised on the Big Ten Network with Mark Neely (play-by-play), Vera Jones (analyst) and Shireen Saski (sideline) calling the action. The Big Ten Tournament will televise the first nine tournament games, while the Championship game will air on ESPN2.
RADIO/WEB: The Lady Lions' games can be heard on the Penn State Sports Radio Network with Jerry Fisher (play-by-play) and Stacey Brewer (color) describing play. The game will air locally WMAJ. The audio feed and a link to GameTracker are available at www.GoPSUSports.com.
EIGHTH SEED IN THE TOURNEY: The Lady Lions are the eighth seed in the Big Ten Tournament and will face the ninth-seeded Illinois Fighting Illini. The Lady Lions finished the regular season tied for seventh with Wisconsin, but lost the tiebreaker to the Badgers. The only other time that PSU was the #8 seed, the Lions advanced with a win over #9 Wisconsin, 80-73, in the 2006 Tournament.
FIRST ROUND HISTORY: The Lady Lions are 2-2 all-time in first round games at the Big Ten Tournament. In 2006, Penn State topped ninth-seeded Wisconsin, 80-73, and in 1998, the Lady Lions downed 10th-seeded Northwestern, 97-76. The Lady Lion losses came in the 1997 Tournament to 10th-seeded Ohio State, 80-79, and in the 2008 Tournament to #7 seed Michigan, 64-54.
ALL-TOURNEY TEAM HISTORY: Penn State has had 13 All-Tournament Team selections, including four MVP choices, in the 13-year history of the Big Ten Tournament. Missy Masley (1995) and Angie Potthoff (1996) were tabbed the Tournament MVP when the Lady Lions took home the crown, while Andrea Garner (1998) and Helen Darling (2000) were MVPs when Penn State lost in the Championship game.
ALL-BIG TEN SELECTIONS: Lady Lion guard Tyra Grant capped an outstanding junior season with a selection to the All-Big Ten first team by both the coaches and the media. The junior is the 10th player in school history to earn All-Big first team honors for a total of 22 selections, the most among Big Ten schools since 1992-93. Additionally, senior guard Brianne O'Rourke took home postseason honors for the third time in her career with an All-Big Ten honorable mention selection by the media.
GRANT COMES UP JUST SHORT IN SCORING BATTLE: Junior guard Tyra Grant held a 13-point advantage over Ohio State's Jantel Lavender in the Big Ten Conference scoring race heading into the March 1 meeting with the Buckeyes. Grant registered 14 points in the finale to finish with 359 points in Big Ten play. However, Lavender had a dominating performance with 28 points to accumulate 360 tallies in Big Ten games and take home the conference scoring crown by a single point.
CAREER NIGHT FOR MER: Meredith Monroe had a career night in the regular-season finale against Ohio State as she tied her career mark with eight points and set a personal best with nine rebounds. The junior also had eight points against Indiana on Jan. 11. Monroe's previous career rebounding mark was six, set twice in her three-year career.