UNIVERSITY PARK — It was all about defense and pressure for Penn State on Sunday afternoon against Wagner at the Bryce Jordan Center.
The Lady Lions gave up three relatively easy jump shots to Wagner forward Veronick Fournier and fell behind by five points early to the Seahawks, but those would be the last easy looks Wagner would have for a long time.
Penn State ratcheted up its full-court and half-court pressure defenses, and after Maggie Lucas’ jumper gave the Lady Lions their first lead, Penn State went on a 22-1 run to surge to a 20-point lead at the 10-minute mark of the first half.
At halftime, the lead had ballooned to 38 points, and from there Penn State coasted home to a 103-42 victory over the non-conference Seahawks.
Penn State’s offensive explosion — this was the third game this season in which the Lady Lions scored over 100 points — was keyed mostly by the numerous turnovers and bad shots that were forced by its defenders. In all, Penn State forced 24 turnovers in the game and scored 36 points off of those turnovers.
Maggie Lucas and Alex Bentley led the Lady Lions with 23 points each, and Zhaque Gray and Ariel Edwards also scored in double figures for the balanced Penn State offense with 13 and 11 points, respectively. Nikki Greene scored nine and Talia East chipped in with eight for the Lady Lions.
“We had great ball pressure,” Lucas said. “Zhaque (Gray) was all over their point guard the whole game and she caused a lot of turnovers.
“Our press, with Alex (Bentley), Ariel Zhaque, and (Edwards) up top, if I was running point, I would not want that threesome coming at me. That’s a turnover. They played really well.”
The game began with a jump shot by Fournier and then a tying score by Bentley. Fournier then nailed another jump shot, and then after a Lion miss, she made a long three from the right wing tout the Seahawks up 7-2.
Penn State, however, began to zero in on the Wagner ball handlers, and a three by Lucas at the 16-minute mark put the Lady Lions ahead 8-7. From there the floodgates opened, and by the 11-minute mark Penn State was up 27-10, and then 37-10 with just over eight minutes to play in the first half. The halftime score was 57-19.
“I thought we started doing a much better job of using our athleticism,” Penn State coach Coquese Washington said. “And pressuring them into turnovers and into playing faster than they wanted to play.
“I thought it started at the top of our presses, as Maggie said, and then all five of our players, even when we went man-to-man, made it difficult for Wagner to run its offense. It got us going. You have to look at our defense because it got us going in transition. And our kids, when we get into transition, their eyes light up.”
The second half was more of the same, with Penn State forcing the Wagner offense into mistakes and bad shots. Penn State’s biggest lead came after a layup by East that put the Lady Lions ahead 90-35 with just under seven minutes to play.
“I think some shots that we could have gotten didn’t fall for us early,” Wagner coach Gela Mikalauskas said. “Our kids came out really fired up to play a great team like Penn State, and you have to have almost everything go right for you in the beginning of the game to give your players that faith, that belief, that hey, we can play with these guys.
“Things went bad for us in a hurry, and I think the Penn State pressure had a lot to do with that, especially later in the game.
“To beat a team like Penn State you have to take care of the ball and be perfect from the foul line. There is no room for error.”
Penn State now moves to its final non-conference game at Bucknell on Wednesday, which will be followed by the first Big Ten game when Nebraska comes to visit the Bryce Jordan Center on December 30th.
“I think we are right where we want to be at this point,” Washington said, “considering that we haven’t had a full team for any game. We still have some some room for improvement. We still have some growth areas in terms of our chemistry and jelling. But I like where we are.”
