UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – The 2018-19 Penn State women's basketball season officially gets underway Thursday when the Lady Lions welcome Providence to the Bryce Jordan Center. Tipoff for the season opener is slated for 7 p.m.
FOLLOW ALONG
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Game Notes: Penn State Notes
PROMOTIONS
- Home opener
- Post-game mingle with the Lady Lions – fans are invited to stick around post-game and chat with the Lady Lions for the first five minutes after the game. The Lady Lions will head up to the stands to meet fans.
OPENING TIPS
- Penn State opens its 55th season of women's basketball when the Lady Lions host Providence in the 2018-19 season opener.
- The Lady Lions return 80-plus percent of points, FG made, 3FG made, FT made, assists and steals from a 2017-18 squad that finished 16-16 and made a WNIT appearance.
- Head Coach Coquese Washington enters her 12th season at the helm with seven national postseason tournament appearances and three Big Ten Championships under her belt.
IF PENN STATE BEATS PROVIDENCE
- The Lady Lions would improve to 11-1 in season openers under Coquese Washington.
- Penn State would move to 28-6 in the Bryce Jordan Center dating back to the start of the 2016-17 season.
- The Lady Lions would improve to 6-0 all-time against Providence.
2018-19 LADY LIONS
- Head Coach Coquese Washington returns a strong and experienced core of players that will look to mix with three talented freshmen for the 2018-19 season. With no seniors on last year's roster, the Lady Lions return 10 letterwinners from the 2017-18 campaign. The 2018-19 roster features a balanced mix of four seniors, one redshirt-junior, two true juniors, three sophomores and three freshmen.
- Penn State brings back four of its top five scorers and six of its top seven from a season ago, led by senior three-time All-Big Ten selection and 2017 honorable-mention All-American Teniya Page. Page, who has amassed 1,589 career points, looks to become the sixth Lady Lion to reach the 2,000-point milestone during her final campaign for the Blue and White.
- Amari Carter and Jaida Travascio-Green will once again play key roles in 2018-19 after averaging 14.2 and 11.2 points per game, respectively, last season. Siyeh Frazier, the team's 2017-18 defensive MVP, will also be a key cog in Washington's lineup.
- The sophomore class of Alisia Smith, Kamaria McDaniel and Sam Breen combined to play over 1,100 minutes a season ago and will carry that valuable experience into their second seasons.
- Penn State adds three highly-touted rookies to the 2018-19 field in Lauren Ebo, Karisma Ortiz and Bexley Wallace.
SCOUTING PROVIDENCE
- The Friars finished the 2017-18 campaign with a 10-21 overall record and a 3-15 mark in the BIG EAST Conference.
- Providence was picked to finish ninth in the BIG EAST Preseason Coaches' Poll this season.
- The Friars are led by senior Jovana Nogic, who returns after a strong junior campaign in which she averaged 17.1 points per game and made 87 three-pointers. Nogic was named Preseason All-BIG EAST as well as to the Ann Meyers Drysdale Award Watch List for the nation's top shooting guard.
- Ten of the Friars' 21 losses during the 2017-18 season were decided by a single-digit margin, including three games by five points or less.
THE BIG 200
- Head Coach Coquese Washington enters her 12th season at the helm needing just three wins to reach the 200-victory mark for her career. She currently holds a 197-151 career record. Over her 11 seasons on the Penn State sidelines, Washington has enjoyed three Big Ten regular-season championships and seven national postseason appearances, including four NCAA Tournament berths.
TRACKING TENIYA
- Teniya Page, a 2018 Consensus Preseason All-Big Ten Selection, has proven to be one of the strongest guards in the Big Ten from the day she stepped on campus. The guard has collected All-Big Ten accolades in each of her first three years, earning first team honors as both a sophomore and junior. Page was named a WBCA All-America honorable mention selection in 2016-17 following her standout sophomore campaign.
- Page enters the 2018-19 season with 1,589 career points, putting her just 411 points away from hitting the 2,000-point mark. She would become the sixth Lady Lion to reach the milestone if she hits the 2,000-point mark. With 29 regular-season games scheduled and at least one postseason contest guaranteed (Big Ten Tournament), Page will need to average 13.7 points per game to reach the milestone. She averaged 15.3 points per game as a freshman, 19.9 as a sophomore and 18.4 as a junior.
- The standout has already etched her names into several of Penn State's record books. Her 17.9 points per game career scoring average ranks No. 4 all-time. She is one of five Penn Staters with 1,500 career points and 300 career assists. Page owns seven career 30-point games to sit tied for No. 2 all-time at Penn State with Maggie Lucas (7; 2011-14). She's averaged 35.4 minutes per game throughout her career, a mark that ranks second in the Lady Lion history books.
CARTER DOES IT ALL
- Redshirt junior Amari Carter has shown that she can do it all. The guard led the Big Ten with 2.63 steals per game a season ago, in addition to her team-best 116 assists and a 14.2 points per game average that ranked second on the team. Her 2.11 assist-to-turnover ratio ranked sixth in the Big Ten and 61st nationally.
- Carter enters the 2018-19 campaign with 708 career points, putting her 292 points away from becoming the 39th member of the Lady Lions' 1,000-point club. Carter redshirted during her first season on campus before averaging 7.9 points per game as a redshirt-freshman and 14.2 points per contest as a redshirt-sophomore.
ROOKIES READY TO ROAR
- Accumulation of talented people is paramount to any organization, and that is a motto that head coach Coquese Washington builds her teams around. The additions of Lauren Ebo (Washington, D.C.), Karisma Ortiz (San Jose, Calif.) and Bexley Wallace (Pickerington, Ohio) to the 2018-19 roster fit that model and each of them should have an impact for the Lady Lions on and off the court.
- Ortiz hails from Archbishop Mitty High School, which ranked as the No. 1 team in the nation by USA Today at the end of her senior year. The six-foot guard was ranked as the No. 54 prospect nationally by ESPN.com.
- Ebo and Wallace will add strong size to the post group, coming in at six-foot-four and six-foot-three, respectively. Ebo led her Riverdale Baptist team to an Independent School National Championship and Title IX Pat Summitt Division title as a senior.
- Wallace, who comes to Happy Valley from a suburb of Columbus, Ohio, guided Pickerington Central to a Division I State Championship as a senior and was also a part of the USA Basketball 16U squad that captured the bronze medal at the 2015 FIBA Championship. Wallace was ranked as the No. 91 prospect nationally and No. 16 forward in her class by Prospect Nation.
DON'T MISS A GAME
- There are plenty of ways to join the Lady Lions this season. Season tickets are available for purchase by clicking HERE, by calling 1-800-NITTANY or by visiting the Athletic Ticket Office in the BJC.
- Group ticket packages, which feature added benefits to those who purchase a select number of tickets, are available HERE.
- Partial plans including the Roar Flex Pass (8 tickets for $64 – mobile only) and the 6th Man Pass (6 games for $52 – paper vouchers) are available HERE.
- Single game tickets can be purchased HERE.
#BRINGTHEROAR
- Keep up with the team by following on Twitter (@PennStateWBB), Instagram (@PennStateWBB) and Facebook (Penn State Lady Lion Basketball).
UP NEXT
- Penn State remains home for a key non-conference battle Sunday when the Lady Lions take on #24/RV California.
- The game will serve as Military Appreciation Day and the K9 Frisbee Crew will perform at halftime. The freshmen class will sign autographs post game and fans will receive discounted admission with a football ticket from Saturday's Wisconsin game at the gate only.
- Tipoff is slated for 2 p.m. Sunday afternoon.