Feb. 11, 2016
| 65 | 61 |
| Breslin Center | East Lansing, Mich. | |
| POST GAME LINKS |
| Box Score (HTML) | Box Score (PDF) |
| Notes |
| Photo Gallery (USATI) |
| VIDEO: Game Highlights |
| VIDEO: Coach Washington Postgame |
| FINAL STATISTICS |
EAST LANSING, Mich. -- It was a defining moment in a young career, as freshman Teniya Page (Chicago, Ill.) hit two of the biggest shots of her career to help lead the Penn State women's basketball team to a 65-61 victory over No. 15/17 Michigan State on Thursday evening at the Breslin Center.
Trailing by one point, 61-60, Page dribbled to the wing and knocked in a jumper to give Penn State a 62-61 lead with 60 seconds left in the game. After Michigan State turned the ball over, Page drove the floor and made the layup to push the lead to three points, 64-61, with 20 seconds to play. The Spartans missed a shot on the ensuing possession and Lindsey Spann (Laurel, Md.) made one-of-two free throws to seal the victory.
It marks the second time this season that Penn State rallied from a double-digit deficit to win a game, coming back from 14 points down with 7:25 to play in the third quarter to claim the victory. The Lady Lions also grabbed a win after trailing by 10-plus points at Illinois on Jan. 23, 2016.
Page continued to climb the freshman scoring charts with her fifth 20-point game of the season. The rookie moved into the No. 8 spot, passing Alex Bentley (365, 2009-10), as she ended the night with 379 points through 24 games. She added three rebounds and four assists, shooting 8-of-16 from the field.
Moving past the 700-point mark was senior Brianna Banks (Newnan, Ga.), who ended the game with 16 points to move her career total to 703 tallies. She scored nine of those points in the third quarter and 11 after the break. She added three rebounds and three assists.
Junior Peyton Whitted (Suwanee, Ga.) reached the 400-rebound mark for her career with her third rebound of the first quarter. Whitted ended the night with seven rebounds to give her 404 on her career. Senior Candice Agee (Victorville, Calif.) tallied 10 points for her seventh game this season in double figures.
Michigan State opened the first quarter with eight straight points, but Penn State responded with a 7-3 run to cut that lead to 11-7 with 2:25 left in the opening quarter. After a Jenna Allen jumper pushed MSU's lead back to six points, Spann connected on her second straight bucket to make it a four point game with 1:51 left and a Jasmine Hines free throw was the only point scored over the final two minutes, sending the game into the first break at 14-9 in favor of the Spartans.
A 9-4 spurt from the Lady Lions to open the second quarter pulled the game even at 18-all with 5:07 to play. Whitted hit a three-pointer -- her second of the season -- to start the period and Agee converted two straight layups before Whitted knotted the score with a lay-in of her own. Penn State was unable to take the lead in the quarter, as the Spartans had an answer for each Penn State scoring spurt, leaving the score 33-28 at halftime.
Much like the first quarter, Michigan State came out on a 9-0 spurt to build a 14 point lead with 7:15 to play in the third quarter. A Banks layup with 6:47 to play in the quarter ended nearly a four minutes scoring drought for Penn State to make it 44-32 in favor of the Spartans. Another Powers layup made it a 14-point lead (46-32), but a 12-2 run cut the MSU lead to five points, 48-44 with under 30 seconds to play in the quarter. Michigan State got the final bucket of the quarter to send the game to the final 10 minutes at 50-44 in favor of the Spartans.
Penn State flipped the script and started the fourth quarter with an 8-0 spurt to take its first lead of the game, 52-50, on an Agee layup with 7:53 to play in the fourth quarter. The game stayed a one possession game for most the rest of the fourth quarter, with the lead changing hands six times down the stretch, the final one coming on a Page jumper from the with 1:00 to play in the game. Trailing, 61-60, Page knocked down the jumper from the left wing and on the ensuing possession, MSU turned the ball over and Spann knocked in one-of-two free throws to seal the four-point victory.
Penn State returns home for a Valentine's Day matinée matchup with Ohio State on Feb. 14 at 2 p.m. The game will be aired on the Big Ten Network and also over the airwaves of the Penn State Sports Network.
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