Jan. 19, 2017
By Ryan Berti, GoPSUsports.com Student Staff Writer
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - In the world of sports, nearly all of the attention is drawn towards the starting lineup. It's where both the credit and criticism find a home depending on whether glory or failure comes a team's way. Arguably more than any other sport, however, the importance of the team extends further than just the starting five in basketball. Depth plays an extremely vital role in a game that features constant swaps of personnel in real time.
That is no different with the Penn State women's basketball team, as the bench has been the backbone to the team this season.
This of course all starts with depth. In an offseason that saw just two new freshmen join the team's ranks, the Lady Lions returned nine letterwinners and five starters, only losing Candice Agee and Brianna Banks.
Of that crew, four upperclassmen in junior Lindsey Spann, and seniors Kaliyah Mitchell, Sierra Moore, and Peyton Whitted have picked up where they left off last year and have contributed not just on the court but as leaders for the underclassmen-heavy roster. But a lot of those successes have come not from where one might expect in a veteran starting lineup. Instead, much of that production has come from the bench.
The wealth of depth on the roster has given head coach Coquese Washington the ability to constantly tinker with the lineup and make decisions based on personnel and situations rather than by necessity. In her rearrangements, often times she has put a lot of experience on the bench.
"I like our depth and I like that we continue to grow and build it over the course of the season. We've shuffled some things around all season long but I think we're settling into being in a pretty good groove," she said.
The trio of Spann, Mitchell, and Whitted head the squad that comes off the bench to create production in any given situation. In that group alone, you have the Lady Lions' top two rebounders, and two of the team's top three in steals and top five in scoring. Coach Washington said she has been impressed with the crew and says their experience adds another wrinkle to Penn State's attack.
""It absolutely I think is a wonderful advantage because you have kids coming off the bench with a lot of confidence that understand how to make an impact fairly quickly when they get in the game," Washington said. "You can make adjustments and put people in the game who are experienced in making those adjustments."
Spann said the ability to get many skilled bench players in has proved to be a tactical advantage, as the team is able to take over as soon as the opponent starts to show signs of fatigue.
"We go in and we play up-and-down, we play fast and it helps us be successful having people come in with fresh legs and tiring out the other team with that fast pace that we want to play at," Spann said.
As a result, the bench unit as a whole has paid dividends. In the past 10 games alone, Penn State's bench has outscored its opponent's bench a whopping 247-105, averaging more than 14 points more per game than the opposition. Of those games, only once was Lady Lions' bench outscored. That was against Maryland, where the Terrapins barely edged them, 14-13.
The bench's average of 24.7 points per contest over that span accounts for 37.5 percent of the Blue and White's scoring, showing just how immense the impact has been.
With the boost in energy and results all members of the bench have had this season, Washington has a lot of faith that any of her players can leave their mark once they get out onto the hardwood.