Oct. 30, 2016
By Ryan Berti, GoPSUsports.com Student Staff Writer
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. ââ'¬" After seven months of hard-work in the weight room and scores of hours of practice against each other, the Lady Lions finally had a chance to once again step out onto the hardwood and test their skills against another team, while also giving fans a taste of what's to come.
Penn State took down the Bloomsburg Huskies 85-41 Sunday afternoon at the Bryce Jordan Center in the one-and-only exhibition for the Lions before the start of the regular season. In the victory, they were able to get valuable playing time against opposing players and showcase what they have been working on since last year.
Throughout the offseason, the Lady Lions have spoken about the team's newfound speed and preached its importance moving forward. The up-tempo style was executed often and early on in contest as Penn State started off the game going full-throttle.
The first five baskets of the game from the field by the Lions all came off of quick transitions from the team turning hard-pressing defense into an aggressive offensive attack. Those five scores were tallied in just 27 combined seconds, going from one end of the floor to the other, averaging just 5.4 seconds per possession.
The team's speed was shown in flashes throughout the game, ultimately fueling the Penn State offense to 22 fast break points, but coach Coquese Washington said after the game that the team has some work to do to get up to the optimal speed.
"I didn't think we played as fast as I'd like," Washington said. "I think we've played faster than we have in the past, but I think in terms of looking at our ability to play faster, I think we can [play faster]."
During the game's early stages, the Penn State defense had their way with the Huskies. In the first four minutes of play, Penn State forced four steals and held Bloomsburg scoreless. A Ciara Forde layup with 5:58 remaining in the first gave the visitors their first points on the board, but it was few and far in between as they struggled to do much all day long on the offensive end, ending the game on 30 percent shooting.
One of the newest members of the Lady Lions, Jaida Travascio-Green, got to make her first appearance in the Blue and White, and she could not have gotten off to a better start. A few minutes into the second quarter, the freshman took her first shot as a Penn Stater and drilled a three-pointer. Then at the quarter's halfway mark, she hit another from behind the arc, this time stepping back and shooting it with a defender right in her face. Immediately after on the ensuing Bloomsburg possession, Travascio-Green added a steal to her stat sheet as she snatched an off-target inside pass and helped lead the offense the other way.
She finished the day with nine points after going 3-5 from deep while also contributing on the defensive end with a block and two steals.
"I'm excited by the way all of our underclassmen have been playing," Peyton Whitted said on the play of the squad's younger players. "If you saw Jaida playing, you didn't see that she's a freshman, she's not playing like one. They're doing a great job"
While the guard had herself a solid first time playing against college competition, the stars of the day came from the veterans in sophomore guard Teniya Page and senior forward Peyton Whitted.
The former put up a superb team-high 19 points on 57 percent shooting along with nine assists to fill up the box score, meanwhile the latter scored one point less but at an efficient 75 percent clip while also garnering eight total rebounds.
Whitted had an especially strong start to the second half by registering the first four baskets for the Lions in the first three minutes of the third quarter. She was a menace inside the paint and was the catalyst that allowed Penn State to outscore Bloomsburg in the paint 50-16.
Many positives came from the blowout victory, but coach Washington knows there is no glory in being complacent and also saw many areas of the game; like pace, communication and offensive execution; that can be improved on in the coming weeks before the regular season's inception.
"There were a lot of positives and a lot of things that the kids can take away from [this game]," Washington said. "As coaches we often say you learn a lot from a loss, but I think there are a lot of things that we can learn positively in terms of areas of growth out of a win. We'll watch the film and point out some areas we can continue to get better at and we'll go from there."
The season sits now 12 days away for the Lady Lions as they open the year on the road at Drexel. That game takes place Friday, November 11 at 7 p.m.