Penn State has hit the homestretch of the Big Ten women’s basketball season and it’s important to the Lady Lions to sprint through the finish line.
Starting with tonight’s 7 p.m. home clash with Wisconsin, the No. 18 Lady Lions have much riding on a strong finish run over the next five regular-season games.
Penn State (18-5 overall, 8-3 Big Ten) is in contention for a league title,
trailing Purdue (9-2), Ohio State (8-2) and Nebraska (8-2) the standings. They’re also in line for one of the top four seeds in the Big Ten Tournament which would give them a first-day bye in the five-day event. No team that has played on the first day of the tournament has won it.
Penn State has a 11/ 2 -game lead over fifth-place Michigan State (6-4). The Lady Lions need to finish ahead of the Spartans, who own a tiebreaker advantage thanks to beating the Lady Lions twice during the regular season.
And while they’re likely already in the NCAA Tournament, the Lady Lions will be looking at the stretch run to improve their seeding in the Big Dance. Penn State is ranked as high as a No. 4 seed by some prognosticators.
Penn State coach Coquese Washington said she and her players are well aware of the implications over the next three weeks.
“With only five games left, you want to finish strong,” Washington said at her weekly news conference Wednesday. “Certainly when you talk with respect to the Big Ten Tournament and seeding, those things are starting to play out as you finish the last five games of the season.
“... We’ve got five games and we want to finish as high as possible so we can get the best seed possible going into the Big Ten Tournament. It also has implications for NCAA Tournament seeding. We definitely want to finish the season strong and put ourselves in as beneficial position as possible going into postseason play.”
On paper, this week seems like an easy opportunity to reach the 20-win mark. The Lady Lions rolled to an 82-49 victory over Wisconsin (82- 49) in Madison on Jan. 2, shooting 52 percent from the floor. They travel to 10th-place Northwestern (13-10, 3-7) on Sunday.
Washington said her team won’t look past anyone, especially the Badgers. Wisconsin won three straight before falling in overtime to Iowa (85-79) and to No. 10 Ohio State (72-58) on Monday. The Badgers set a school record with 12 3-pointers against the Buckeyes.
“They’re not the same team,” Washington said of the Badgers. “They’re playing a lot better basketball now than they were earlier in the conference season. We played them in our second conference game and they’ve definitely gotten better. ... I don’t think it will be much of a challenge for us to realize that they’re a better team. We’ve got to have a really good defensive effort against them.”
Guard Taylor Wurtz leads the Badgers in scoring (16.4) and rebounding (7.5). Anya Covington, who missed the past two games with an illness, has averaged 13.7 points during Big Ten play.
“Every game is another step to what we want ultimately our goal to be,” Lady Lion senior Zhaque Gray said. “I don’t think we take them lightly even though we did win the first time. We still take them with the same respect when we first played them.”
Washington’s club is coming off a 68-65 win at Minnesota. The Lady Lions opened the game 1-for-18 from the floor and trailed by 15 points in the first half, but rallied over the final minutes.
“It taught us defense can help you stay in games,” Gray said of Sunday’s win. “Even if you’re not scoring points, if you’re getting stops on the other end, eventually you offense will start coming. It taught us not to worry. If we’re not making shots we’ve got to keep playing defense.”
Also integral in the comeback was the play of forward Mia Nickson, who has missed nine full games and parts of three others with injuries this season. Nickson had a season-high 20 points against the Golden Gophers.
“I think they always look for her,” Washington said the Lady Lions targeting Nickson for offense. “It’s just a matter of whether or not she’s in the game. She’s certainly a big component of what we want to do. I think we’ve done a pretty good job of adapting to not having her on the floor, but when she is on the floor she gives us another dimension which makes us a lot more dangerous.”
Notes: Washington said that forward Marisa Wolfe is “getting better, but not like to play” in tonight’s game. Wolfe has missed the previous two games with a recurrence on concussion-like symptoms, which also sidelined her for three games at the start of the season. ... Penn State is 26-10 all-time against Wisconsin, with the Badgers winning five of the last eight games. The Lady Lions hold a 15-2 advantage at home. ... Wisconsin has made 154 3-pointers this season, just 20 short of the school mark. ... The Badgers are averaging 19 3-point attempts per game and are making 35 percent.
Walt Moody can be reached at 231-4630.
