Lady Lions fall to BYU in tournament consolation game

Penn State had a rough trip to southern California for Thanksgiving.

The Lady Lion basketball team dropped both games in the the Radisson Chatsworth Thanksgiving Classic.

Penn State was bounced by Brigham Young 63-51 Saturday afternoon in the consolation game at the Metadome.

The Nittany Lions (3-3), who have dropped three of their last four, struggled through a slow start while getting beaten on the boards in the loss. The 51-point night was a season low after averaging 75 points a game before the trip to the west coast. The previous low was 66 in a loss to No. 4 Tennessee.

The Cougars (3-3) raced to a 22-11 lead in the opening 10 minutes and never relented.

Lexi Rydalch’s 24 points, and Kalani Purcell’s 16 points and 15 rebounds led BYU, which made 44.4 percent of its field goal attempts in the first half. Penn State made just 35 percent from the field in the opening half, and 32 percent for the game.

The Cougars, hit the glass hard with a 46-32 edge in rebounds, took the lead for good on a Rydalch 3-pointer. While they never trailed, they also never built a lead larger than 14 in the final seconds of the first half.

Penn State got 15 points and eight rebounds from Peyton Whitted, 11 points from Kaliyah Mitchell and 10 points from Teniya Page in the loss.

In Friday’s first round, Page scored a game-high 26 points, but it wasn’t enough in an 81-73 loss to tournament host Cal State Northridge. Georgia beat BYU 66-58 in the other opener.

The Matadors finished 12 for 16 from 3-point range. Serafina Maulupe led Northridge with 19 points. The Matadors led 24-14 after the first quarter and 41-33 at halftime.

The Lady Lions tied it 49-49 on a free throw by Page in the third quarter. Cal State Northridge took a one-point lead into the fourth quarter, and the Lady Lions could never pull even or take the lead.

Mitchell had 13 points, and Lindsey Spann and Candice Agee each finished with 12 points for Penn State.

The Lady Lions are back on the court Thursday, hosting Virginia Tech at 8 p.m. in the ACC-Big Ten Challenge at the Bryce Jordan Center.

This story was originally published November 28, 2015 at 1:00 AM with the headline "Lady Lions fall to BYU in tournament consolation game."