UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - Trailing by as much as 24 points, the Penn State Lady Lions stormed back to within six in the fourth quarter behind 34 points from Teniya Page in a 81-70 loss to the Stony Brook Seawolves. It was the eighth career 30-point game for the senior guard.
Page played every minute for the Lady Lions, scoring 20 of her 34 in the second half charge. The 34 points are a season high for Page, who is known for her scoring but has established other strong aspects to her game.
"I think just doing what we practiced (helped in the second half)," Page said on her sucess. "My job is to score but I'm a basketball player too so I need to find ways to get my teammates involved. I can't always be scoring 34 points and expecting a win so. Just doing what we practice and learning to do it the entire game."
Just over one minute into the contest, Junior guard Amari Carter left the game with an injury and did not return. Page had to pick up the slack in all areas for the team. This allowed the Seawolves to open up the large advantage, before Penn State's energetic second half.
Despite the huge night for Page on offense and lacking Carter's veteran presence, the senior guard took her big night in stride.
"I never want to see a teammate go down, and obviously she was missed but part of my job is to show up and play every single day regardless of what actually needs to be done," Page said. "It was no different from any other game, I showed up and tried to do my job."
Kamaria McDaniel was the only other Lady Lion to reach double figures for Penn State with 13 points, a mark that head coach Coquese Washington would like to see grow.
"Teniya really tried to take over offensively for us but I think we've got enough offensive weapons that she shouldn't have to do that," Washington said. "So, we have to pay attention to the details and hunker down just a little bit to be more effective on both ends of the floor."
So far this season, Page's scoring efforts have been aided by Carter, Siyeh Frazier and Alisia Smith. Frazier is averaging 12.7 points per game while Smith is averaging 12.3 but they combined for just 10 points in Sunday's loss. Page is now averaging 20 points per game on the season.
In the second half for Penn State as the defense picked up the offense followed suit creating more opportunities for Page to get to the hoop. With a full court press applied, Penn State recorded nine second half steals resulting in 13 points off of turnovers. This was a part of 12 steals on the game which is a season high.
"I think our defense was better in the second half and that gave us more opportunities in the flow of things for us than we did in the first half," Washington said. "We were able to generate some momentum that way. I was just extremely disappointed in our focus and our effort defensively. We've got to come out with just a little more attention to detail in the first half and really put four quarters together."
Despite the furious comeback falling just short, the Lady Lions can be pleased with the performance of Page, knowing she can score almost at will when necessary.
Penn State returns to action on Thursday when they travel to Tallahassee to take on the Florida State Seminoles.
