UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Postseason basketball is here and the Penn State women's basketball team opens the Big Ten Tournament against Minnesota Wednesday afternoon. The Lady Lions and Gophers will tip off at approximately 4:30 p.m. at Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis on the Big Ten Network.
FOLLOW ALONG
- Television: Big Ten Network – Lisa Byington (pbp), Christy Winters Scott (color), Vera Jones (sideline)
- Listen: Penn State Sports Network with Justin Antweil and Joe Putnam – 93.3 FM, 1390 AM and Online
- Tournament Central: Tournament Central
- Live Stats: Live Stats
- Game Notes: Penn State Notes
OPENING TIPS
- Penn State begins postseason play Wednesday afternoon when the No. 14 seeded Lady Lions face No. 11 Minnesota in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament from Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.
- First Team All-Big Ten selection Kamaria McDaniel is the Big Ten's second-leading scorer with 19.7 points per game. Senior Siyeh Frazier (13.4 ppg) is also averaging double-digit points and has scored 25+ in her last two contests.
IF PENN STATE BEATS MINNESOTA
- Penn State would advance to Thursday's second round to take on sixth-seeded Ohio State at approximately 9 p.m.
- PSU would make an appearance in the second round of the Big Ten Tournament for the fourth time in the last five years.
- Penn State would snap its 14-game losing streak.
TOURNEY TIME
- March Madness is here and the Lady Lions open up postseason play in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament Wednesday against Minnesota.
- Penn State will be looking for its first Big Ten Tournament championship since its back-to-back tourney titles in 1995 and 1996.
- Penn State aims to appear in the second round of the tournament for the fourth time in the last five years.
- The Lady Lions are 2-1 all-time against Minnesota in the Big Ten Tournament.
SCOUTING MINNESOTA
- Minnesota earned the No. 11 seed in the Big Ten Tournament by way of a 5-13 confernce record that is part of a 15-14 overall mark.
- The Gophers enter postseason play having dropped their last six contests.
- Second Team All-Big Ten honoree Taiye Bello leads the Gophers with 11.9 points and 9.6 rebounds per game.
- Jasmine Powell (11.9 ppg), Gadiva Hubbard (11.1 ppg), and Sara Scalia (11.0 ppg) follow in the balanced offensive attack.
AGAINST THE GOPHERS
- Penn State and Minnesota will be meeting for the first time since the 2019-20 conference opener.
- The Lady Lions are 2-1 all-time against the Gophers in the Big Ten Tournament and own a 28-20 advantage in the all-time series.
- Penn State fell to the Gophers in the second round of the 2017 Big Ten Tournament. The Lady Lions earned wins over Minnesota in the 2010 and 2012 Big Ten Tournaments.
- The season's first meeting was a tale of two halves as Penn State found itself down by 35 points to Minnesota, but the Lady Lions put together a valiant comeback attempt that fell just short in an 81-74 conference-opening loss on Dec. 28 at the Bryce Jordan Center.
- Minnesota led by as much as 35 points at 49-14 in the second quarter. Penn State out-scored the Gophers 53-27 in the second half to pull all the way back within single digits.
- Kamaria McDaniel led the way for Penn State with 31 points. Siyeh Frazier chipped in 21 points to go along with nine rebounds and three assists. Makenna Marisa added 12 points, while Lauren Ebo hauled in a team-best 10 rebounds.
ALL-B1G HONORS
- Junior Kamaria McDaniel was voted First Team All-Big Ten by the conference media and Second Team All-Big Ten by the conference coaches, as announced by the Big Ten Monday afternoon.
- McDaniel earned the first All-Big Ten honor of her career after her standout junior season in which she averaged 19.7 points per game. The Inkster, Mich. native becomes Penn State's 34th First Team All-Big Ten selection.
- McDaniel's 19.7 ppg ranks second best in the conference and 15th in all of Division I, while her 20.8 points per Big Ten game leads the conference. Her outstanding junior season puts her in the top 15 of a number of Penn State single-season records including: free throws attempted (fourth – 194), field goals attempted (seventh – 482), scoring average (ninth – 19.7 ppg), free throws made (10th – 145), and total points (13th – 572).
- McDaniel scored in double figures in 27 of Penn State's 29 regular-season games, including three 30-plus point performances and thirteen 20-plus point efforts. Ten of those 20-plus point performances came in Big Ten play.
- The guard scored her 1,000th career point on March 1 at Michigan State to become the 39th member of Penn State's 1,000-point club. McDaniel has scored 572 points thus far this season, 122 more than her first two seasons combined (450). Her scoring jump comes after she finished her sophomore campaign averaging 9.7 ppg in 2018-19.
SIYEH STEPPING UP HER GAME
- Siyeh Frazier has taken her game to a new level in her senior season. She currently ranks second on the team with 13.4 points per game.
- Frazier is coming off the best two games of her career. In the final home game of her career on Feb. 27 against Michigan, she finished with a career-high 28 points on 12-of-17 shooting, and added a team-best seven rebounds and four steals.
- She followed that with a 25-point effort in the regular-season finale at Michigan State on March 1.
- The Detroit native entered this season having made only 12 three-pointers in her career, and has already drained 23 this season.
- She leads the team with 68 steals and ranks third in the conference with 2.3 steals per game. She has already surpassed her mark of 48 steals from a season ago.
DOUBLE TROUBLE
- The tandem of Kamaria McDaniel and Siyeh Frazier has proven hard to stop this season.
- The duo combined for 52 points in Penn State's regular-season finale at Michigan State on March 1.
- McDaniel scored a team-best 27 points, while Frazier added 25.
- They became the first pair of Penn State players to score 25 or more points in the same game since Dec. 31, 2015 when Teniya Page (27) and Brianna Banks (25) accomplished the feat against Northwestern.
UP NEXT
- The winner of Wednesday's first-round matchup advances to Thursday's second round to face sixth-seeded Ohio State at approximately 9 p.m. on the Big Ten Network.