Lady Lions ready for stage

Walt Moody

Ask a Broadway director abut a new play and they’ll probably tell you the same thing — all of the great practices and rehearsals don’t mean anything until your ensemble can pull off the performance in front a live audience.

CDT file photo/Craig Houtz

Penn State head coach Coquese Washington will guide the Lady Lions into an exhibition game this afternoon against IUP.

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Penn State women’s basketball coach Coquese Washington has similar thoughts heading into today’s exhibition game against Indiana University of Pennsylvania at 2 p.m. at the Bryce Jordan Center.

ith four new freshmen and three more sophomores, who had limited experience last season, Washington is not quite sure what performance she’s going to get against the Division II Crimson Hawks and later opponents.

“I just want to see how we do with the lights on and how some of the young kids respond to the crowd ... and actually playing and it means something as opposed to playing in practice,” Washington said earlier this week.

The Lady Lions, 13-18 last season, are looking to rebuild after the program’s fourth consecutive losing season. Washington returns several proven players — namely senior guard Tyra Grant (second in the Big Ten in scoring with a 19.6 average last season), junior forward Julia Trogele (7.6 points and a team-leading 6.3 rebounds per game) and junior center/forward Janessa Wolff (6.8 ppg, 5.6 rpg), but the intrigue is how the returnees and freshmen will fill in some big gaps.

Graduated guards Brianne O’Rourke and Mashea Williams started the bulk of their four-year stints and take away a wealth of experience and combined 20 points per game last season.

The freshman class leads the intrigue. For all of their inexperience, the freshmen have made a significant impact on the practice floor.

Competitiveness is high, even in the most mundane things like a relay race for conditioning. “You’d think we were giving away a $1 million check at the end of the relay race because they’re out there jumping the gun,” Washington said. “That’s the kind of energy they have. They want to be good. They want to be great.”

But wanting to be good and actually playing well are two different things and Washington knows her team is going to struggle no matter how energetic it is in practice.

“We can stand to get better from the execution standpoint,” she said “I think that’s going to be a work in progress for us, especially at the very beginning of the season. We do have at times four or five freshmen and sophomores on the floor at the same time.”

One key will be at point guard, a position that O’Rourke was a fixture at for four seasons. Freshman Alex Bentley and sophomore Emily Phillips will inherit that key spot.

“Sometimes coming down, Alex and Emily just aren’t quite sure what they’re looking for,” Washington said. “They have to suffer though those challenges and get more familiar and more confident and comfortable in what they’re looking for, what they’re doing and what their teammates are doing. ... The timing isn’t quite right. That’s the experience thing. We’ve got to play some games. We’ve got to keep practicing and I think the timing issues will iron themselves out.”

Although Washington did not announce a starting lineup earlier this week, Bentley and 6-foot-4 freshman center Nikki Greene were listed as probable starters in a university release. They will be joined by Grant, Trogele and sophomore guard Zhaque Gray.

The Lady Lions will face a team today that already has two exhibition games under its belt. IUP lost 71-42 against Duquesne last Sunday and 88-56 against Dayton on Friday.

The Crimson Hawks are coming off a 26-6 campaign, having won their third consecutive PSAC Tournament and setting the school mark for wins in a season. Gone are three of the top four leading scorers from that squad, which lost in the second round of the NCAA Division II Tournament.

Former Claysburg-Kimmel standout Lacey Claar (9.5 ppg) is the team’s leading returning scorer. Forward Sylvie Tafen, the Crimson Hawks’ tallest player at 6-2, had 16 points against the Flyers.

Notes:Tickets to the game are $5 for general admission for adults and free for students. ... Former Penn State center Evelyn Lewis, who started 23 games for the team last season, has transferred to George Mason University. Lewis averaged 2.9 points and 5.0 rebounds a year ago as a sophomore. ... Grant is a candidate for the Lowe’s Senior Class Award and the women’s Wooden Award. ... Penn State is 2-0 all-time against IUP and hasn’t played the Crimson Hawks since 1977.