March 10, 2013
By Mike Esse, GoPSUsports.com Student Staff Writer
HOFFMAN ESTATES, Ill. - Penn State wasn't planning on flying back to State College on Sunday morning. The No. 1 seeded Lady Lions certainly weren't planning on being upset in the fashion that they were by No. 4 Michigan State at the Sears Centre on Saturday night.
In the wacky season that it has been in both men's and women's basketball, Saturday proved once again that sometimes, things don't go as planned in college basketball.
Penn State couldn't find the net on a consistent basis in either half and couldn't stop the Spartans in the last 10 minutes of the second half.
Thus, for the second straight year, Coquese Washington's team fell victim to an upset in the semifinals of the Big Ten Tournament. With the big dance looming, the question now becomes how quick the Lady Lions can put this loss in the rearview mirror.
"You can't look past it," said senior guard Alex Bentley. "You can't look past a loss. We take what we learned from this game and we get better and use that to move forward."
On a night where the Lady Lions shot 22 percent from the field, got outrebounded by 24 and arguably played their worst game of the season, sixth year head coach Coquese Washington now has to find a way for her team to move on in the coming weeks.
If we have learned anything about Washington, her staff and her team this year, it is almost a sure thing that she will do exactly that.
The senior class has been heralded and commended all season long for that reason, their ability to bounce back from a mind scratching loss like this one.
That bounce back ability starts right with the message being sent from their head coach.
"Well, you can't get too high with highs and can't get too low with lows," said Washington. "We get some time off now, we can rest, we can get healthy and get ready to go to the NCAA Tournament with a renewed focus."
In Penn State's previous four losses, they followed each up with a win. Now they will have a couple weeks to get their focus back on the winning track and it helps that now a completely new season is born once the selection show occurs on March 18.
Washington said after the game that it is a game of matchups come NCAA tournament time and indeed it is. That may play into the advantage of the Lady Lions, who had already been seen by the team that upset them twice before Saturday night.
From here on out, it will be new opponents and new matchups to prepare for, something Penn State hasn't truly had since late December.
"Basketball is a game of matchups," said Washington. "When you play in conference play, teams are so familiar with you and know your personnel and know the things that you like to do.
"And you go forward to the NCAA Tournament, you don't know what your matchups are going to be, you don't know anything like that. It's a new season."
Along with that, there were a few more positives to take away from Saturday night; a game that prompted Washington to call her team's shooting performance an "anomaly".
It is almost guaranteed that Penn State won't shoot that poorly again and it is similarly guaranteed that the Lady Lion bench will continue to see its use go up as tournament play continues.
Washington used all 10 of her players in both Big Ten tournament games and saw productive minutes from all five bench players, which was a constant throughout the regular season, as well. That luxury will not go away no matter where the Lady Lions end up when they have their dancing shoes on.
Maggie Lucas' heart and toughness also could not go unnoticed at the end of Saturday night's game. Michigan State's upset seemed nearly imminent and Lucas was still firing and hitting shots from downtown.
Nothing changed for the junior; she was competing, as always. The same could be said for the rest of her teammates, which perhaps is the most positive takeaway as the team returns to State College to prepare for whomever they will face in two weeks.
"She's a competitor," said Washington. "Her drive and her will to win are very, very high and it's not just her, but the entire team. Our drive and competitive fire is high. We just met a team tonight that played better than we did, shot the ball better than we did, and rebounded better than we did. So that's why we didn't get the win."
The selection show is slated for Monday, March 18 at 7 p.m. Penn State is currently projected as a number two seed in the tournament by ESPN.com's Charlie Creame.
--NITTANY LIONS--