| 51 | 63 |
| The Matadome | Northridge, Calif. | |
| POST GAME LINKS |
| Box Score (HTML) | Box Score (PDF) |
| Notes |
| <!a href="http://www.gopsusports.com/blog/2015/10/video-one-on-one-postgame-with-james-franklin-illinois.html" target="_blank">VIDEO: Coach Washington Postgame |
| FINAL STATISTICS |
NORTHRIDGE, Calif. - A big first quarter for BYU was too much for the Penn State women's basketball team to overcome in its 63-51 loss on Saturday afternoon at the Radisson Chatsworth Thanksgiving Classic.
Penn State (3-3) got on the scoreboard first thanks to a Candice Agee (Victorville, Calif.) layup, but BYU (3-3) would head to the other end of the floor and connect on a three-pointer to account for the only lead change of the game.
Junior Peyton Whitted (Suwanee, Ga.) led the team in scoring for the fourth time in six games with 15 points, while tying for the team-high with eight rebounds. Whitted has led or tied for the team lead in rebounds on five occasions this season for Penn State.
For the sixth straight game, freshman Teniya Page (Chicago, Ill.) registered double-figure scoring and handed out at least four assists. The rookie chipped in 10 points with four helpers, adding eight rebounds to tie her career-high and equal Whitted for team-high vs. BYU. Page played a game-high 38 minutes and added two steals and one blocked shot with just two turnovers on her ledger.
Junior Kaliyah Mitchell (Stone Mountain, Ga.) tallied 11 points, including a 6-of-6 effort from the free throw stripe, with two assists and one blocked shot. Keke Sevillian (Goodrich, Mich.) collected a pair of steals in the game to push her career total to 51.
Freshman Jaylen Williams (Easton, Mass.) grabbed a career-best four rebounds and had one steal off the bench for Penn State.
BYU's Lexi Rydalch led all scoreres with 24 points, while Kalani Purcell totaled a double-double with 16 points and a game-best 15 boards.
After Agee scored the opening basket of the game, the Cougars controlled most of the rest of the first quarter. Agee's layup was followed by six straight tallies from BYU and after exchanging baskets over the next three minutes to move the score to 11-8 in favor of the Cougars, BYU closed the half on an 11-3 spurt to head to the first break leading, 22-11.
The lead hovered at double-digits for most of the second quarter, with Penn State pulling within eight points at 28-20 after two Agee free throws and a Whitted layup with 3:42 to play. The Cougars would score seven of the next eight points to extend the lead to 35-21, but Mitchell canned a three pointer from the corner as time expired to send the game to halftime with BYU leading, 35-24.
Penn State gained some ground in the third quarter, quickly making it a seven-point game thanks to a pair of Agee buckets to open the frame. The Cougars built the lead back to 13 points midway through, but the Lady Lions trimmed it back to single digits at the end of the quarter thanks to a pair of free throws from Mitchell with under a minute to play. Penn State forced a turnover of the final BYU possession, but couldn't connect from the field and entered the fourth quarter trailing, 38-47.
It was a sluggish fourth quarter, but Penn State pushed through and outscored the Cougars 11-7 to pull the score within two possessions at 54-49 with 1:06 to play. Page's fast break score at the 1:06 mark cut the Cougars lead to five points, but a Sevillian layup was all PSU would get over the final 60 seconds, as BYU connected on 9-of-12 free throws down the stretch to account for the final margin.
Penn State returns home for a date with Virginia Tech on Thursday, December 3 at the Bryce Jordan Center as a part of the Big Ten/ACC Challenge. Tipoff is slated for 8 p.m. and the game will air live on the Big Ten Network, on the Penn State Sports Network and on GoPSUsports.com.
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