Jan. 20, 2016
| 82 | 69 |
| Carver-Hawkeye Arena | Iowa City, Iowa | |
| POST GAME LINKS |
| Box Score (HTML) | Box Score (PDF) |
| Notes |
| VIDEO: Game Highlights |
| VIDEO: Postgame Press Conference |
| FINAL STATISTICS |
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- The game was tied at 2-2, but a Brianna Banks (Newnan, Ga.) jumper sparked a six-point swing and the Penn State women's basketball team never looked back in an 82-69 victory over Iowa inside Carver-Hawkeye Arena.
Five Lady Lions' (7-11, 2-5 B1G) reached double figures in the contest as Penn State shot 49 percent for the game. It is the third time this season that five different PSU players tallied double-figures. Defensively, Penn State held the Hawkeyes (13-6, 3-4 B1G) to just 35 percent shooting from the field, including 16 percent from three point range.
Sophomore Lindsey Spann (Laurel, Md.) wasted no time moving past the 600 career point mark, hitting a jumper to open the scoring against the Hawkeyes. She ended the night with game-high tying 16 points and 615 for her career in 47 games played. Spann added a career-best eight assists to go along with six rebounds.
Banks reached double-figures for the 11th straight game and 13th time in 2015-16 with a game-high-tying 16 tallies. She also handed out three assists to move past the 150 career assist mark, with 40 coming in the blue and white.
For the 15th time in her young career Teniya Page (Chicago, Ill.) reached double-figures in the scoring column. The rookie tallied 14 points in the contest, adding seven rebounds and four assists. It is the ninth times this season she has had at least 10 points and four assists in the same game.
Junior Peyton Whitted (Suwanee, Ga.) notched her fourth career double-double -- all of them coming in 2015-16 -- with a 14-point, 10-rebound effort. She shot 5-of-6 from the field and was 4-of-4 from the free throw line. She now has seven games this season with 10-plus rebounds.
Kaliyah Mitchell (Stone Mountain, Ga.) also broke the 10-point mark in the game with 12 points, adding seven rebounds and a team-best three steals.
Penn State opened the game with an efficient showing on offense, shooting 75 percent from the floor during the opening 10 minutes on its way to a season-best 25 first quarter points to take a 25-19 lead. Banks led the way with seven tallies for the Lady Lions, while seven different Penn Staters scored in the frame. The Lady Lions opened an eight point lead with 2:34 to play on back-to-back baskets by Candice Agee (Victorville, Calif.) and Spann.
The Lady Lions led throughout the second quarter, but Iowa cut the lead to just three points with a 10-4 run over a five minute stretch. A Spann three pointer quelled a 3:40 scoring drought and Penn State closed the half on a 10-5 spurt to head to the locker room with a 46-38 advantage. The 46 points were the most by Penn State in the first half this season.
The two teams played even through the first six minutes of the third quarter, but Penn State closed the half on an 11-0 run, capped by a Whitted jumper at the buzzer to push the lead to 19 points, 68-49. A Mitchell three-pointer started the closing spurt, while Whitted added four points and Page scored four down the stretch for PSU.
Iowa stormed back in the fourth quarter, outscoring the Lady Lions 20-7 over the first nine minutes to cut the Penn State lead to just six points. The Lady Lions, however, held on as they converted 5-of-6 free throws down the stretch and Banks finished off the contest with a steal and layup accounting for the final margin.
Penn State finishes a two-game Big Ten road trip with a visit to Illinois on Saturday, January 23 with a 3 p.m. ET tipoff against the Fighting Illini. Fans can catch the game on BTN Plus as well as the airwaves of the Penn State Sports Network.
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