UNIVERSITY PARK – Penn State women's basketball (5-0) overcame a 21-point second-half deficit on its way to an 82-69 win over Syracuse (4-1) Monday night at Bryce Jordan Center for the largest comeback in program history. Freshman Shay Ciezki sparked the Lady Lions' rally with 16 of her 18 career-high points during the second half run.
Syracuse led 45-24 with under seven minutes to play in the third quarter. Penn State was able to cut the deficit to 10 (55-45) at the end of the third and then took over in the fourth quarter, outscoring the Orange 37-14 to hand them their first loss of the season.
Makenna Marisa and Ciezki scored 13 points apiece to lead the charge for Penn State in the fourth quarter. The duo combined for 9-of-14 shooting, highlighted by a 3-for-5 mark beyond the arc by Ciezki.
While those two carried the scoring effort for the Lady Lions in the final 10 minutes, it was a total team effort across the board. Chanaya Pinto pulled down six rebounds, which was three more than Syracuse had as a team in the quarter. Alli Campbell had a pair of steals to account for two of the Orange's five turnovers. Meanwhile, the Lady Lions didn't commit a turnover in the quarter and held the Orange off the free-throw line. They also dished out eight assists on their 13 field goals while shooting 65 percent from the field.
The comeback itself was impressive, but the speed in which it happened was even more spectacular and had the Penn State faithful on their feet for much of the quarter. The 10-point deficit was down to one (57-56) in just two minutes, 22 seconds of play. Ciezki had seven points in the 11-2 run.
Syracuse looked to have stopped the Penn State momentum with a 3-pointer by Alaina Rice to go back up four (60-56), but the Lady Lions were far from finished. Ciezki responded with a 3-pointer of her own and Pinto scored on a fastbreak layup to give Penn State its first lead of the game at 61-60 with 6:33 to play. Rice again came up big for the Orange with another 3-pointer to put her team back up two, but just like before Ciezki was there to answer. Her 3-pointer put the Lady Lions up for good as they outscored the Orange 21-6 over the final 5:33 of play.
NOTES
- Penn State is tied for the best start since the 2017-18 season.
- The 21-point comeback is tied for the second largest in Big Ten history (Nebraska over Creighton, Dec. 6, 2015).
- The previous school record for a comeback was 17 against Wisconsin (W, 58-56 in overtime on Jan. 22, 2009, trailed 24-41 with 10:21 remaining in the second half).
- The 37 points is the third-most scored in a quarter, two off the school record (Michigan State, Jan. 17, 2016 and Saint Peter's, Nov. 13, 2016).
- The Lady Lions went 13-20 (65%) from the field in the final quarter, including 7-15 (46.7%) from three.
- In the third quarter, Penn State went 8-16 from the field and 4-8 from three.
- Penn State got 20 bench points in the second half with none by Syracuse and had a 13-1 fast break, 19-5 second chance points and 27-11 rebounding advantages in the last two quarters.
- The Lady Lions generated 14 assists to just five turnovers in the last 20 minutes.
- Marisa led all players in scoring in the game with 22 points while adding eight rebounds and seven assists.
- She moved into 18th place in program history in career points (1342), getting ahead of Cheryl Ellison (1979-83, 1,320) and Maren Walseth (1997-01, 1,328).
- Marisa recorded her 62nd double-digit scoring game, including 34-straight dating back to the start of last season, and 27th 20-point game.
- Johnasia Cash just missed a double-double as she led all players with 12 rebounds in addition to her nine points.
- Pinto tallied 12 points and seven rebounds for a game-high plus/minus of 20, while Campbell contributed five assists and four steals.
POSTGAME PRESS CONFERENCE
UP NEXT
Penn State plays in the Daytona Beach Invitational, the first road trip of the season, for games against Toledo Friday at 1:15 p.m. and Fresno State Saturday at 11 a.m.