Jan. 14, 2016
By Mike Gilbert, GoPSUsports.com Student Staff Writer
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - In a back and forth battle Wednesday night at the Bryce Jordan Center, the Lady Lions put together a great come-from-behind effort in the fourth quarter against Nebraska that showed mental toughness and the ability to focus while climbing back from a deficit. Despite an 83-78 defeat at the hands of the Cornhuskers (11-5, 2-3), Penn State showed grit and resiliency after being down double-digits to turn the game into a one possession game with under a minute remaining. The practices the team had leading up to the game had a lot to do with the increased level of intensity shown in the fourth quarter according to junior Kaliyah Mitchell.
"We've been practicing all week about competing so I feel like in the fourth quarter we were all thinking in our heads this is what we've been practicing for so that's what we went out and played hard for," she said.
Down nine points headed to the last period, Brianna Banks and Taniya Page took turns hitting clutch shots that kept the Blue and White in the contest, starting with a Banks three-pointer with 9:03 remaining in the game that put her team down just six. With just over six minutes to play in regulation, Banks was at it again, drilling another shot behind the arc to make it a two-point game. Meanwhile Teniya Page hit a three of her own with two minutes left, and had a beautiful left-handed lay-in to stay in striking distance. On the other side of the court, lots of movement and key plays down the stretch forced Nebraska turnovers and limited their opportunities to score.
A no-call with Penn State down three and 12 ticks on the clock gave possession to Nebraska that sealed the deal, but if the incidental contact call near the end of the game was called a foul, it easily could have flipped the script in Penn State's favor. A steal by the Lady Lions led to a fast break with the opportunity to go to the line down just three, but there was contact under the basket that was not called, and the ball trickled out of bounds.
Either way, the clutch players for the home team definitely showed up after trailing early in the game.
"This game was a game we really competed. When we were down, we still held our heads up instead of getting down on ourselves and like I said before, we've just been working on competing and working hard," said Mitchell. "We had 2 great practices so I think continuing that throughout the season is something that will get us together and allow us to continue to compete."
After being outscored 29-11 in the first quarter, the team did not show any signs of quitting. Head coach Coquese Washington was happy with the way her team fought back and gave everything they had.
"I was happy with the intensity and the effort in the fourth quarter. We talked in the third quarter and at beginning of the fourth quarter about not trying to...make home run plays and get it all together at one time, but to try to go score stop score, or stop score stop. We wanted to put together possessions where we got stops in a row and we were able to do that and that seemed to give us a little bit of energy and momentum on the offensive end."
It was a tough loss for Penn State, who gave the fans and themselves an opportunity to beat a good Nebraska team through sheer hustle and determination. The Lady Lions (6-10, 1-4) can use their fourth quarter run as a building block this Sunday as the team will host Michigan in the Pink Zone game at 2:00 p.m.