Dec. 16, 2014
By Gabrielle Richards, GoPSUsports Student Staff Writer
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - The Lady Lions looked like a team on a mission in Sunday's victory against Rider. They opened the floodgates early, putting two on the board just 15 seconds after the tip. With only one game separating them from their conference schedule, the Lady Lions are starting to find a rhythm and develop court chemistry.
The 85-51 triumph against Rider was a true team effort with a handful of Lady Lions posting double-digit games. Freshman Lindsey Spann posted her second 20-point game of her career and Kaliyah Mitchell secured her first double-double. But for anyone watching Sunday's matchup against Rider, junior Candice Agee was a force to be reckoned with offensively and defensively.
"I think that she [Agee] is one of the players that has really grown," head coach Coquese Washington said. "Over the course these non-conference games you've seen some inconsistency with her. She plays a good half here and a good half there, but the last two or three games, we're starting to see a little more consistency from her."
Agee was on fire, tallying 19 points en route to her third double-digit scoring game of the season. While she was a major contributor on offense, Agee controlled the post last night, checking out of the game with five blocks.
"You're starting to see her confidence grow and her understanding of how she fits and how she can be an impact player for us on both ends," coach Washington said. "You're starting to see her figure that out. Whenever you can have a dominant post-player everything else can flow around that."
Standing at 6-foot-6, the California native is the tallest center coach Washington has had on her roster. Agee is impactful inside the paint; her size, confidence and patience are proving to be an unavoidable obstacle for opposing teams.
"I think it was very important for us to come out firing in the first half rather than trying to pick up [our offense] in the second half," Agee said. "This game compared to last; I made a point to become [the aggressive] player in the first half. It was very important for me to come out and dominate the paint early to open [shots] up for my teammates."
All season long, Coach Washington has been saying that as soon as her team gains some confidence that everything else will fall into place. Agee's confidence is forcing teams outside, making them take shots they aren't comfortable with. With Agee's help, the Lady Lions were able to hold Rider's leading scorer, Robin Perkins, to just six points in Sunday's contest. Perkins came into the game averaging 12.4 points per game.
"We went to the basket in the first half and really didn't get anything out of it because of her presence," coach Milligan said. "She does a great job of clogging the lane and she obviously is long and definitely altered our shots today, there's no doubt about that. That's something for them moving forward is going to be very helpful."
This season, Agee has posted at least on block in all but one game. Her efforts against Rider pushed Agee past the 50-career blocks milestone with 54 all-time and 20 this season. Agee was pretty vocal in last night's game, a necessary component to the on-court chemistry we are seeing develop with these young Lady Lions.
"We wanted to be disciplined in our rotations and make sure we were talking," Agee said. I think we all focused and made an effort to get our rotations right and that helped me get some nice blocks. We are going to keep getting better and working at it."