Postgame Quotes: Head Coach Carolyn Kieger
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – La Salle put together a fourth-quarter rally to hand the Penn State women's basketball team a tough 69-67 loss Sunday afternoon at the Bryce Jordan Center.
Junior Kamaria McDaniel led Penn State with a career-best 25 points on 10-of-16 shooting. Sophomore Lauren Ebo recorded her first double-double of the season with 12 points and 10 rebounds.
HOW IT HAPPENED
- The first quarter was a back-and-forth battle as neither team led by more than four. The score was knotted at 14-14 before freshman Anna Camden drilled a buzzer-beating three-pointer as the first-quarter clock expired to give the Lady Lions a 17-14 edge.
- Penn State carried that momentum into the second quarter as seven points from McDaniel fueled a 12-0 run to open the term and put the Lady Lions up 29-14 with 7:34 left in the half.
- The Penn State defense kept La Salle from scoring a field goal for a nearly 10-minute stretch from the 2:14 mark of the first quarter to the 3:26 mark of the second quarter.
- Penn State's strong second quarter ended with the Lady Lions out-scoring the Explorers 24-7 to take a commanding 41-21 lead into the break.
- The Lady Lion edge remained at 20 at 45-25 shortly into the third quarter, but La Salle followed with back-to-back three-pointers to narrow its deficit to 45-31 with 5:20 on the clock. Penn State scored nine of the final 14 points of the term to take a 54-36 edge into the final 10 minutes of play.
- La Salle's huge fourth quarter was fueled by a 6-for-8 effort from three-point range as the Explorers put up 33 points compared to Penn State's 13. The Lady Lions had their chances at the end, but couldn't make the shots as the Explorers completed the 69-67 come-back win.
KEY NOTES
- McDaniel was 10-for-16 from the field and 5-for-7 from the free throw line en route to her career-high 25 points. It bested her previous career high of 24 that was set on Nov. 29, 2018 at Florida State.
- Ebo recorded her third-career double-double and first of the season.
- Senior Siyeh Frazier led the team with five steals, while freshman Makenna Marisa tallied a team-best three assists.
- La Salle shot 61.1 percent (11-for-18) from the field and 75.0 percent (6-for-8) from three-point range in the fourth quarter, compared to Penn State's 28.6 (4-for-14) field goal percentage.
FROM THE SOURCE
Head Coach Carolyn Kieger
- "We are learning some very, very hard lessons right now and I hope that's what they'll be. I hope they'll be lessons and they need to be. We need to learn how to be winners and that's what I came here to do, and I came here to change the culture."
- "I give Mountain [MacGillivray] a lot of credit. He's had a year to get their team to be winners and he did a phenomenal job changing that culture in one year. You could tell his players really wanted to win at the end of that game. We've got to get there."
- "We cannot give up thirty-three points in the fourth quarter and expect to win a game. It's on me. I'm the head coach of that team. I've got to coach a better game, I've got to get my players ready to play ball and we've got a lot to fix."
- Full Kieger Transcript
UP NEXT
- Penn State remains home to host ACC foe Clemson Thursday night.
- Tipoff is slated for 7 p.m. from the Bryce Jordan Center.