Nov. 18, 2013
By Tyler Feldman, GoPSUsports.com Student Staff Writer
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - The Lady Lions have played just three games thus far, meaning the season is in its most primitive stage. However, after Sunday's 71-52 loss to No. 1 Connecticut in front of a crowd of 8,194 fans, it is clear that senior forward Talia East is head coach Coquese Washington's go-to player off the bench.
"Her contributions off the bench are crucial to our team," said Washington. "We don't make some of the runs we made in this game without her being on the floor getting the blocked shots, getting the rebounds, and getting us some opportunities and transitions. I'm very, very happy to have her coming off the bench for us."
In a first half, when the Lady Lions struggled from the field, senior forward Talia East was a spark off of the bench against the Huskies.
At the 15:36 mark in the first half, Washington substituted East into the game to provide an inside presence to take advantage of the Huskies playing without Preseason All-American Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis who suffered an elbow contusion last week.
And take advantage she did. East stepped onto the hardwood and immediately impacted the game with a big block down on the low post. The senior forward displayed strong play on both ends of the court, tallying six points, four rebounds and two blocks in the first half.
"I am just thinking run the floor hard, defend and rebound," said East. "If I can do those three things amongst others, then I am good for the most part."
It was a similar story for the Lady Lions and East in the second half. Enter in East and one block later, the Lady Lions are controlling the tempo of the game and scoring easy points in transition.
"I think we zeroed in on things we should have been doing consistently throughout the game, but definitely zeroing in on what we do well," said East. "When we did that, we cut into their lead. Some untimely turnovers got us out of it, but sticking to what we did well helped cut the lead."
What East did do extremely well was create second chance points for the Lady Lions. In a game where Penn State shot only 30% from the field, East displayed a strong awareness of where shots were being missed off the iron by positioning herself well in front of the opposition.
"I think it got a little bit easier toward the end of the game," said East when asked about boxing out down low. "We were getting in front of people and preparing for the ball to come off."
The preparation from East paid dividends as she finished the game tied for game high honors with 10 rebounds - seven of which were on the offensive glass. Her three defensive boards led to three pristine outlet passes and transition buckets.
With that being said, East, being one of four seniors on this Lady Lions squad, knows that there are areas that this team needs to work on and improve.
"We did certain things that caused us to get out of our offense at the beginning," said East. "They are a great defensive team, but I think that it fell a little more on us, as we got out of what we normally do."
The 6-foot-3 senior forward from Philadelphia was not the only member of the team that plans to use the loss to Connecticut as a learning experience.
Head coach Coquese Washington likes playing against the nation's best because it allows her to see what she needs to work on with her team.
"We like playing these kinds of games because it shows a lot about ourselves," said Washington. "It shows us where we need to get better at, where we need to be more effective. There are a lot of positives that we can take away [from today] and the best positive is that we've got twenty-nine more games to play. So we can take some lessons and we get better."
For how ineffective Washington said her offense performed, East stood out as an experienced leader who used the packed home crowd to her advantage in order to generate energy on both the offensive and defensive sides of the ball.
"I thought [the crowd] was amazing," said East. "I was so happy to see our community come out and be loud. When we cut their lead down, they were hyped. We we're so appreciative and look forward to seeing that for the rest of the season."
Sixth-man specialist East and the Lady Lions will look to get back on track when they host the Bucknell Bison on Wednesday at 7 p.m. at the Bryce Jordan Center.