Dec. 6, 2013
By Mike Esse, GoPSUsports.com Student Staff Writer
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - If there's such a thing as a blessing in disguise, No. 10/11 Penn State's two losses in the early stages of the 2013-14 season might fit that billing come February and March.
The No. 1 Connecticut and No. 4/5 Notre Dame squads were on the schedule as chances to garner resume-building wins, but the losses may build something even more important: a complete and experienced Lady Lion team.
Following a 77-67 lost to the Fighting Irish, that's how head coach Coquese Washington and three of her senior captains approached the two losses to a pair of the nation's best.
There are many reasons why, but the one that was on display most against Washington's alma mater was her team's ability to play competitively for long stretches without 2013 Big Ten Player of the Year Maggie Lucas on the floor.
Washington knows that Lucas' seven-point performance won't happen many more times during her senior year, but what she didn't know was how her team would respond to not having its best player on the floor.
Wednesday, against Notre Dame, they responded well.
Dara Taylor, Talia East and Ariel Edwards all were in double figures plus seven points from Tori Waldner and five rebounds apiece via Kaliyah Mitchell and Alex Harris. That's exactly what their head coach wanted to see.
"Coming into the game we talked to everybody about being aggressive and assertive," said Washington. "I thought from the beginning of the game Dara [Taylor], Ariel [Edwards] and Talia [East[ were all assertive and aggressive. Kaliyah [Mitchell] and Alex [Harris] both came off the bench and did good things for us."
This was an important building block for those players since they did it without Lucas on the floor and it is proof of their need to continually build toward consistent balanced scoring before the conference season begins.
"When teams really key in on [Maggie] and make it difficult for her, the rest of us have to step up and be aggressive," said Taylor. "We can't be a one-person show. We have to help her out. Maggie can't carry us throughout the whole season and I think in the second half we proved that we can pick her up when we made our run."
Going back to the loss to Connecticut, Lucas thrived in the second half getting Penn State within nine points of the Huskies after being down by more than 18. She received help in that second half though, as Waldner had seven points and East added six rebounds, most of which were very important to their near comeback run.
Now, the Lady Lions know what they need to do to play a complete and consistent game with seven, eight or nine different players since they proved they could do it against a pair of the top five teams in the country.
"It's really encouraging," said Washington of the number of players that contributed in the two losses. "I think that is one of the areas that we need to get better at, which is developing some offensive rhythm and consistency. Again, when we do that, we're going to be really strong."
Washington has said over the past three weeks that the season is in fact a "work in progress" in the early stages, but confidence is building as more players begin to contribute and her team knows that just 10 points separate them from the top teams in the country.
"We're close. I think we just have to make some small adjustments," said East. "It's December. We're eight or 10 points away from the number one team in the nation. We're right there and we're just going to keep building on it and be a great team by March."
Penn State heads to the road for a two game road trip against Georgetown and South Dakota State before facing it's final ranked opponent of the non-conference season No. 23 Texas A&M at home on Dec. 15.