March 19, 2012
NCAA Second Round Notes (3/20/12)
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BATON ROUGE, LA. - The No. 4 seed Penn State Lady Lions (25-6, 13-3) continue their NCAA Tournament against No. 5 seed and the host LSU Tigers (23-10, 10-6 SEC) on Tuesday at 9:40 p.m. (ET) in Baton Rouge, La. The game will be televised on ESPN2 and available on ESPN3.com. The winner of the Penn State-LSU game will earn a spot in the Sweet Sixteen where they will meet the winner of Connecticut-Kansas State matchup.
TELEVISION: The Second Round game airs on ESPN2 with Bob Picozzi and Ros Gold-Onwude on the call. The Penn State-LSU game will be seen in its entirety in Pennsylvania and Louisiana. It will also be part of ESPN2's whip-around coverage of the four games in that time slot. The game is also available on ESPN3.com, in its entirety. DirecTV customers can also watch the game in its entirety.
RADIO/GAMETRACKER: The game is on the Penn State Sports Network and on ESPN 1450 locally with Jerry Fisher calling the action. The audio feed and link to GameTracker are available at www.GoPSUsports.com for free.
SCOUTING LSU: The Lady Tigers are an at-large selection to the NCAA Tournament after finishing the regular-season with a 23-10 overall record and 10-6 mark in SEC play. LSU advanced with a 64-56 win over San Diego State. LSU is led by LaSondra Barrett, who leads the squad in scoring (12.6), rebounding (7.0) and steals (1.4). Adrienne Webb adds 9.9 points per game.
ALL-TIME VS. THE LADY TIGERS: The Lady Lions are 3-2 all-time against LSU. Penn State and LSU have only met in Baton Rouge once with the Lady Tigers earning an 80-63 victory on Jan. 4, 2003. The teams have never met in the NCAA Tournament. Penn State is 21-27 all-time against SEC opponents.
LAST TIME VS. LSU: The last time the Lady Lions faced the Lady Tigers, Penn State posted an 83-46 win in the 2003-04 season opener on Nov. 21, 2003. Kelly Mazzante led the PSU charge with 22 points and five rebounds, while Tanisha Wright chipped in 15 points, eight rebounds and eight assists.
BACK-TO-BACK 25-WIN SEASONS: With Sunday's win over UTEP, the Lady Lions claim their second-straight 25-win season for the first time since the 2002-03 and 2003-04 seasons. Penn State was 25-10 a year ago and is now 25-6 this season. Overall, the Lady Lions have 12 25-win campaigns overall.
OPENING ROUND WIN: The Lady Lions earned an 85-77 victory over UTEP in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on Sunday. Penn State is now 14-3 all-time in opening round games and 28-22 overall in NCAA Tournament games.
BENTLEY CONTINUES TO CRUISE IN NCAA TOURNEY: With the addition of Sunday night's 21-point performance against UTEP, Alex Bentley has scored 20 or more points in each of her first three career NCAA Tournament games. She had 25 points in the first round against Dayton and 21 tallies versus DePaul.
LUCAS CLIMBS SCORING LISTS: With 23 points against the Miners, Maggie Lucas moved into 27th place on Penn State's career scoring charts (1,149). Lucas also moved into a tie for sixth place on Penn State's single-season scoring list (597) with her performance against UTEP. She is tied with Tyra Grant's performance during the 2009-10 season.
COQUESE AND CALDWELL: This bracket has two up-and-coming coaches in Coquese Washington and Nikki Caldwell that were stellar collegiate players themselves. The pair crossed paths on the basketball court during their collegiate careers with Caldwell's Tennessee Lady Vols getting the best of Washington's Notre Dame Fighting Irish three times (1991, 1992 and 1993). The Lady Vols held serve in Knoxville in 1991 (88-71) and 1993 (79-48) and earned the road win in South Bend in 1992 (85-82).
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