Penn State Lady Lions notebook: How transfers and current players are building a ‘championship culture’
Carolyn Kieger is now in her third season at the helm of Penn State’s women’s basketball program.
The team is full of hope — featuring transfer sophomore center Ali Brigham, who enters the program from George Washington, where she averaged 11.9 points per game and led the team with a 50.4 field goal percentage, along with fellow transfer Alli Campbell, an Altoona native who attended Notre Dame for her freshman season.
With the return of steals leader Shay Hagans, assist leader Marisa Makenna and lead point-scorer Kelly Jekot, Kieger expects the Lady Lions to vastly improve off of a 9-15 season that was a fight through the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We feel really good about our team — where we’re at,” Kieger said. “We’ve worked really hard the last two years to really establish our championship culture. We have amazing young women in this program that represent the jersey with pride and passion. They’re 100% bought in and they’re extremely passionate to represent the jersey. They’re determined and very together on the mission to get us back to the NCAA Tournament — where we belong and where we should be.”
Kieger is returning her core group of players and touts captain Anna Camden, Hagans, Tova Sabel and Nyam Thornton as players who have taken it upon themselves during the summer to improve the team’s depth and ability. Leilani Kapinus is a redshirt freshman who Kieger believes “has the potential to not only be one of the best defenders in the Big Ten, but in the country.”
Lady Lions return their ‘heart and soul’
Jekot is often mentioned as the “heart and soul” of the team, according to Kieger. The super-senior led the team points per game with 15.9 per game, prior to suffering a torn left ACL. It was the second ACL tear of her career after suffering a torn ACL, MCL, LCL and meniscus in her right knee during her 2018-19 season at Villanova.
The senior credits her teammates, coaching staff and especially strength and conditioning coach Rhian Davis, who oversaw her recovery. During the entire summer and post-surgery, Jekot put in long hours in the gym to return to form. On Tuesday, she practiced fully with the team — running and cutting toward the basket on the offensive end and making sharp turns on defense to cut off passes.
Through her return, she’s had to learn a great deal about the person that she is and her competitive nature.
“I’ve learned the power of leadership,” Jekot said. “Obviously, my role on the team halfway through the season changed. My perspective was from the bench and I had to use my voice a lot more than I had in the past. So, I learned that I’m capable and that’s something that I continue to grow with every day.”
It was a tough choice to return during the offseason for Jekot and fellow senior Niya Beverley. Kieger met with Beverley, Jekot and former Penn State center Johnasia Cash to gauge whether or not they wanted to come back for one more season with the NCAA giving players an extra year of eligibility with COVID-19 . Cash moved on and Jekot and Beverley returned after weighing their options.
Beverley hopes to continue her strong play, following a year where she scored 9.2 points per game and shot .406 from three-point range.
“Coach Kieger is a great coach and she’s very supportive of her players and everybody in the program,” Beverley said. “All of the conversations [we had] were positive. Like Kelly said, she [Kieger] did put on the full-court press and I love Penn State, I love being here and I love my teammates and I’m just thankful to be back.”
Finding consistency
In the absence of Jekot, Makenna Marisa had to take a big step forward last season. She not only took a step forward in her play, but she took an active leadership role on the court. The then-sophomore averaged the third-most points per game on the team with 13.4 behind Cash (13.7) and Jekot. She also had 119 total rebounds for second on the team behind Cash (211) and Marisa lead the team in assists with 121 on the year.
She wants to make sure that she not only stuffs the stat sheet, as she did last season, but she’d like to become a player that can be counted on to do everything at all times when her number is called on.
“The most important thing is that I’m going to do whatever I have to do to get the team to win,” Marisa said. “One thing that I’m working on this year is consistency, and I know that the team is as well. Consistency is super important and it’s with shots, assists and rebounding. Whatever I have to do with scoring and being more consistent in that area is something I’ve been working on.”
After losing Cash, Marisa now has a new player to work with on the pick-and-roll. Brigham fills into the spot as the reliable frontcourt player who can both grab rebounds and score points. She led the Colonials with 26 blocks and averaged 4.7 rebounds per game in 23 games.
Coming to Penn State had never even crossed Brigham’s mind coming out of high school. She believed that George Washington was the correct place for her, but the transfer portal offered her an opportunity to play at a higher level. She’s now excited to be able to pair with Marisa on what could be a strong backcourt and frontcourt combo.
“It’s been a lot of fun, especially with navigating who likes to come off of what and certain types of moves,” Brigham said. “If you know you’re going to go with ‘Kenna [Marisa], she’s fast when she moves. It’s fun to navigate with screens. We all have such a great relationship with everyone and I think one of the big things is celebrating the success after the success that we have on the screen-and-rolls. That’s what makes it so fun.”
QUICK HITTERS
Sophomore transfer Campbell is in the process of rehabbing an injury suffered in the offseason and is participating in light workouts prior to practice. Campbell attended Bellwood-Antis High School in Blair County, where she was named to the 2020 Naismith National High School All-America Team, the 2019 USA Today Pennsylvania Player of the Year, 2019 Miss Pennsylvania Basketball and the 2018 Pennsylvania Gatorade Player of the Year.
- Jekot earned an undergraduate degree in communications from Villanova, a master’s degree in educational leadership at Penn State and is currently undertaking a certificate program at Penn State in organizational development and change. She hopes to one day become a coach.
- Beverley is working on her master’s degree in public administration, where she “isn’t 100% sure” what she wants to do with it. However, she is considering a sports psychology degree “because I do want to be in sports psychology, that’s one of my goals.” Beverley is of Jamaican ancestry on her mother’s side of the family and says that coco bread is her favorite cuisine from the country.
Penn State will have four conference games on the Big Ten Network and have a possibility of playing a fifth game on national television. Those games are Indiana at 6 p.m. (Dec. 6); Maryland at 6 p.m (Jan. 6), Nebraska at 8 p.m. (Feb. 3) and Michigan State at 6 p.m. (Feb. 27).
Hagans played AAU basketball for the Fairfax Stars with University of Connecticut’s Azzi Fudd, who was the No. 1-ranked player in the Class of 2021.
Brigham draws a number of comparisons from her coaches and teammates to Chicago Sky center Stefanie Dolson, a WNBA champion and two-time WNBA All-Star.
