Bench leads way for Lady Lions

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From CDT staff reports

EVANSTON, Ill. — Having not seen a box score immediately after Sunday's game at Northwestern, Penn State women's basketball coach Coquese Washington was astonished when told on one statistic — 48 points from her bench.

“Forty-eight points off the bench, for real?,” Washington asked following an 88-68 rout of the Wildcats at Welsh-Ryan Arena. “That’s great.”

Wolfe

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While a team-high 20 of those points came from Tyra Grant, who was benched for the first eight minutes for disciplinary reasons, reserves Marisa Wolfe, Emily Phillips and Janessa Wolff went a combined

10-for- 10 from the field and scored 28 points in Penn State’s first Big Ten road win of the season.

“I feel like it was a total team effort throughout the game,” said Washington, whose squad improved to 10-4 overall, 2-2 in league play. “Everybody that went in contributed in some way.”

Alex Bentley added a career-high 15 points for the Lady Lions, who shot a season-high 56 percent and outrebounded the taller Wildcats (11-4, 2-2) by a whopping 39-22 margin.

Wolfe, a 6-foot-3 freshman, also had career-highs with 10 points, four rebounds and three steals and played a key defensive role with starting center Nikki Greene battling foul trouble.

“This was kind of her ‘coming out party,’” Washington said of Wolfe, who entered the contest averaging 1.9 points and 1.8 rebounds per game. “She’s been practicing well and I felt like she’d be ready to go and give us something.

“Our bench players are learning not to be hesitant and to shoot the ball when they have shots that they can make,” Washington added. “... We wanted to force tempo and force the issue. When the bench came in, there was no let up in the aggressiveness.”

Washington said the excellent shooting percentages were a byproduct of the play of point guards Bentley and Phillips, who scored a career-high nine points and dished out seven assists.

“I think the difference in the game tonight — in addition to our bench play — was our point-guard play,” Washington said. “Emily and Alex combined for 24 points and nine assists with only three turnovers. If they can play well, be solid and help us take care of the ball, we can beat anybody in conference play.”

The Wildcats, whose only previous Big Ten loss was to No. 6 Ohio State, led briefly by a point three times in the first half, the final time (13-12) with 13:05 left.

Wolfe made consecutive steals and layups to give Penn State the lead for good. The Lady Lions pushed the margin as high as 12 (34-22) before settling for a 39-33 halftime lead.

Northwestern got as close as four points (45-41) in the second half, but the Lady Lions were able to maintain a seven-to nine-point margin for most of the final 20 minutes.

Penn State’s bench strength and Grant wore down the Wildcats in the stretch run. Leading 71-64 with 4:20 left, the Lady Lions outscored the Wildcats 17-4 with Grant netting nine points in the final 2:25.

“When you can play 10 players in double-figure minutes, I felt like we wore them down in the second half,” said Washington. “We were able to bring our players in fresh and finish the game strong.”

Grant, who missed a half against Bucknell earlier in the season for disciplinary reasons, showed no ill effects of sitting out the start Sunday.

“I wasn’t worried about Ty,” Washington said of Grant, who surpassed the 1,700-point mark for her career. “Ty is going to go out there and play hard and be aggressive trying to get to the basket.

“She scores 20 points on 11 shots. She’s efficient. She works hard to get to the free throw line and she makes her free thows (10-for-11 Sunday).

Meredith Monroe added 10 points for the Lady Lions. Wolff, who took an elbow to an eye and sat out much of the first half, scored all nine of her points in the second half. Zhaque Gray, starting for Grant, added nine points.

Amy Jaeschke had 22 points while Meshia Reed netted 13 off the bench for the Wildcats, who shot 42 percent for the game.

“It feels good to get a conference road win this early in the season,” said Washington, who has a 4-16 record in Big Ten road games. “Conference wins are going to be tough to come by and to get one on the road, we’ll take it definitely.”

Penn State returns to action at noon Jan. 10 with a home clash against Indiana.

Notes:

Penn State improved to 27-7 against Northwestern all-time and snapped a two-game losing streak at Welsh-Ryan Arena. ... Grant hit the 20-point mark for the 33nd time in her career and also reached 400 rebounds for her career.