Buckeyes’ late run buries Lady Lions

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Walt Moody

UNIVERSITY PARK — If you think the snowfall in Centre County was bad this weekend, you should have seen the deluge inside the Bryce Jordan Center on Sunday.

It was raining three-pointers and unfortunately for the Penn State women’s basketball team, Ohio State caused the torrent.

CDT photo/Michelle Bixby

Penn State center Nikki Greene (54) tries to put up a shot while under pressure from Ohio State’s Andrea Walker during the Lady Lions’ 86-73 loss Sunday afternoon at the Bryce Jordan Center.

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The No. 8 Buckeyes made a Big Ten record 17 3-pointers, including nine in the second half, as they rallied from a 15-point deficit to bounce the Lady Lions 86-73 before 6,207 fans.

Point guard Samantha Prahalis had 26 points and nailed 5-of-6 3-pointers for the conference- leading Buckeyes, who made an astounding 17-of-26 (65 percent) from beyond the arc. Ohio State (23-3 overall, 11-2 Big Ten) was 9-for-13 from long distance in the second half.

“That’s just a ridiculous number,” Penn State coach Coquese Washington said of the Buckeyes’ marksmanship from 3-point range. “They had a great shooting night.”

Tyra Grant had 22 points and Alex Bentley added 20 for the Lady Lions (15-8, 7-6), who dropped their fourth straight overall and suffered their 11th straight loss to Ohio State.

The Buckeyes, who committed 18 first-half turnovers and trailed by double-digits for much of the game, rallied behind their long-distance shooting, even with their best shooter Brittany Johnson (who made 4-of-6 Sunday) on the bench with an injured ankle for the last 15 minutes of the game.

Ohio State carved up Penn State’s zone defense that was paying special attention to Buckeye center Jantel Lavender, who entered the contest with a career average of 29.3 points against the Lady Lions.

“We wanted to protect the paint and keep the ball out of the lane, both from Jantel Lavender and Prahalis’ penetration,” Washington said.

The Buckeyes instead got open looks from 3-point range and rarely missed.

“I think when you play against us you have to sort of pick your poison with Lavender on the floor,” Ohio State coach Jim Foster said. “You’ve got to try to surround her — or not. Especially in the second half, I thought we had terrific ball movement and stopped trying to force it. We’ve got real good 3-point shooters, something we work on and are very comfortable with.”

The Lady Lions, who led by 11 at halftime, were leading 58-45 with 151/ 2 minutes left when Ohio State used a

17-5 run to get back into the game. Reserve Maria Moeller’s consecutive 3-pointers put Ohio State ahead at 70-69 with 5:58 left, the Buckeyes’ first lead since the opening basket.

After Grant made two free throws to put Penn State ahead 71-70 with 5:36 remaining, the Buckeyes closed the game with a 16-2 run. Tayler Hill, Moeller and Prahalis each swished 3-pointers to open the spurt and the Buckeyes made 7-of-8 free throws in the final 1:37 to ice it.

“Basically, we ran out of gas and didn’t have the energy down the stretch to make the plays that we needed to make at either end of the floor,” Washington said of her team. “We were still in the position, even with their hot shooting, to win the game. We just ran out of gas.”

Penn State had plenty of petrol in the opening 20 minutes, shooting 53 percent (20-of-38). Freshmen Bentley (8-for-8 from the field, no turnovers) and Nikki Greene (4-for-4 from the field) combined for 26 points and outplayed Lavender and Prahalis.

“We played a great first half and had a lot of energy,” Washington said.

Although she scored 12, Prahalis had a miserable first half by committing eight of the Buckeyes’ 18 turnovers. She picked up a technical foul early in the second half and was relegated to the bench.

“You forget that she’s so young,” Foster said. “She’s just a sophomore and playing the toughest position. ... What I like about her is she’s a pretty quick study. She’s volatile. She’s explosive. She’s passionate. I like all of that stuff — at the appropriate time.”

Foster said the technical foul worked out as Prahalis responded with 14 points, seven assists and one turnover in the final 20 minutes.

“It allowed me to calm her down and talk to her,” Foster said of the technical. “She’s becoming a much better listener. That’s what age and experience starts to teach you.”

Thanks in part to excellent defense by Shavelle Little and tired legs, Bentley cooled off in the second half, when she scored four points, had six turnovers and no assists.

“We started guarding her in the second half,” Foster said. “In the first half, she was getting any shot she wanted. In the second half, it was more about us dictating what we would like to happen.”

Greene did a solid job on Lavender, who finished with 18 points and eight rebounds, both numbers below her season averages.

“It was very tough,” Greene said of guarding the conference’s reigning two-time Player of the Year. “It was different than any other post I’ve played with. She’s a lot stronger and has the ability to really play offense. ... Every once and a while, she would pin me really hard, so I was trying to fight through all of that.”

The Buckeyes’ bench was pivotal in the second half. Led by Moeller’s 10 points, the Ohio State reserves outscored Penn State’s bench 15-4 and Little’s defense helped tire Bentley.

“We’re very fortunate that we have seniors who understand what their job and role is,” Foster said of Moeller and Little. “Both of those kids have started for us in the past. ... That makes us a good basketball team to have seniors coming off the bench that have been there.”

The Buckeyes also cut their turnovers to seven in the second half.

“We started throwing the ball to the red shirts. In the first half, we were throwing them to the white shirts,” Foster explained. “We just forced it. ... In the second half, we took what they gave us, instead of trying to make something happen. It’s that simple.”

Penn State shot 35 percent in the second half.

“We just failed to execute,” said Grant, who was 6-for-18 from the floor. “We didn’t finish what we were running.”

Greene had 12 points and Julia Trogele netted 11. Meredith Monroe had seven boards for the Lady Lions, who were outrebounded 35-25.

Penn State next plays host to Minnesota on Thursday and Washington says her team will have to get better defensively to end its four-game skid.

“The first 19 games of the season, we were a much tougher defensive team than we have been the last two weeks. Outside of Michigan State (a 65-44 loss on Thursday), the past four games we’ve scored enough points to win, but we haven’t defended how we’ve defended in the past. We’ve got to dig down and find the grit and determination to defend better.”