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UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – The Penn State women's basketball team hung tough with No. 4/4 Maryland through three quarters, but the preseason Big Ten favorite Terrapins outscored the Lady Lions 21-4 in the fourth quarter to pull away for a 77-61 win in Friday night's conference opener at the Bryce Jordan Center.
Senior Teniya Page led the Lady Lions with 24 points, marking her sixth 20-plus point effort of the season. Sophomore Kamaria McDaniel followed with 16 points to go along with team-best marks of eight rebounds and three assists.
HOW IT HAPPENED
- Maryland got out to a quick 7-3 lead just over three minutes into the game before stretching its advantage to 13-6 at the 4:43 mark of the first quarter.
- A layup from McDaniel then sparked a 15-5 quarter-closing run for the Lady Lions as Penn State went 7-for-12 from the field during the stretch. McDaniel contributed six points to the streak, while four other Lady Lions added baskets to give Penn State a 21-18 lead after the first term.
- Layups from Page and Frazier opened the second quarter to cap a 10-0 Penn State run as the Lady Lion lead reached 25-18 just 30 seconds into the stanza.
- PSU was still up by seven at 30-23 at the six-minute mark before Maryland rattled off the next seven points to knot the score at 30-30 with 4:37 left on the first-half clock.
- The teams exchanged baskets for the remainder of the half before McDaniel drained a last-second three-pointer that gave the Lady Lions a 41-39 edge at halftime.
- The Lady Lions cooled off in the second half, shooting 28.6 percent (4-for-14) from the field in the third quarter. The Penn State defense limited the Terrapins to just six third-quarter field goals, however, to keep the battle tight. Eight points from Page and five from McDaniel kept the Lady Lions right in the mix of the back-and-forth term as Penn State held onto a 57-56 lead heading into the final 10 minutes of play.
- Jumpers from Page and senior Amari Carter had Penn State in front 61-59 just over a minute into the fourth quarter. It would be all Terrapins the rest of the way though, as Penn State went cold and Maryland scored the final 18 points of the game to claim the 77-61 victory.
KEY NOTES
(12/28/2018) Lady Lions Fall To No. 4 Maryland 77-61
- Page's 24 points pushes her career total to 1,831 points, good for eighth place on Penn State's career scoring charts. She has scored in double-digits in every game this season.
- Page shot 10-for-16 from the field for a season-high 62.5 field goal percentage
- Junior Jaida Travascio-Green played in her first game of the season coming back from injury. With her one three-pointer tonight she now totals 118 career three-point field goals made, moving her up one spot in the Penn State all-time list to tie with Tanya Garner at No. 12. Travascio-Green finished with five points in her first game since late last season.
- McDaniel recorded her seventh double-digit scoring game of the season with 16 points.
- The 16 points marks McDaniel's career high in a conference game.
- McDaniel also added a team and career-high eight rebounds and tied her career high of three steals.
STAT STANDOUTS
- Penn State shot 44.4 percent (16-for-36) from the field in the first half, compared to its 23.1 percent (6-for-26) second-half mark.
- The Lady Lions held a 13-3 edge in points off turnovers at halftime. Maryland scored 15 points off 10 PSU turnovers in the second half, including an 11-0 edge in points off turnovers in the fourth quarter.
- Maryland finished the game with a 52-29 rebound edge.
- Penn State held a 9-4 advantage in fast-break points and the Lady Lion bench outscored the Terrapin bench 23-10.
COACH'S TAKE
Head Coach Coquese Washington
- "Maryland is certainly a very potent team and you can see why they're one of the top teams in the country. With that being said, I think we played very well for the first three quarters and executed our game plan well. We ran into a scoring drought in the fourth quarter. We did a lot of good things in the first three quarters, but that fourth quarter kind of got away from us."
- "I thought we did a pretty good job defensively for the first three quarters of the game. I thought we were aggressive offensively and on both ends of the floor. Kamaria McDaniel came off the bench and gave us a really big lift and we did a really good job of taking care of the ball in the first half. In the second half we had a few more turnovers and we just didn't get the ball to fall the way that we wanted it to fall in the fourth quarter. There are certainly a lot of good things that we can build off of moving forward in conference play."
UP NEXT
- The Lady Lions hit the road for the first time since November when Penn State travels to Indiana for a New Years Eve tilt.
- Tipoff from Bloomington, Ind. is slated for 7 p.m. on Dec. 31.