Lady Lions snap losing streak at Iowa, 82-69

After losing five straight games, Penn State women’s basketball broke its dry spell with an 82-69 win over the Iowa Hawkeyes on Wednesday night.

“It definitely feels good to get a win on the road,” said head coach Coquese Washington via phone call after the game. “Anytime you can get a road win in conference play, it’s huge. And Iowa’s a tough place to play.”

Finally, the Lady Lions (7-11, 2-5) were able to put together a cohesive performance, behind 49 percent shooting from the field (the team was 28 of 57) and a defense that held Iowa under its 73.6 points per game scoring average.

“What’s interesting is that we knew we were getting better defensively, even though it didn’t necessarily reflect in (previous) games,” said Washington. “It was just a matter of us continuing to believe in it and work at it in the games, and it all kind of clicked for us tonight.”

All five starters recorded double-digit scoring. Brianna Banks and Lindsey Spann paced the Lady Lions with 16 points apiece, while Teniya Page and Peyton Whitted scored 14 apiece and Kaliyah Mitchell scored 12. Spann also had eight assists and Whitted grabbed 10 boards to help Penn State out-rebound Iowa 48-34.

“One of the things we talked about was starting fast, and I think we started the game well,” said Washington. “I think offensively we were doing a good job of moving the ball within the half court and playing at the pace we wanted to play at...And we were very unselfish and very patient.

“It may sound funny, but it looked like practice for us. You know, sometimes you get on the court for a game and you do things you’ve never done in practice, but I think today for us, the things that we did during the game were the things we’ve been working on, been emphasizing in practice. It was good for us to be able to carry that over onto the floor on game day.”

For their part, the Hawkeyes struggled from the field behind 35 percent shooting throughout and a deficit that stretched partially due to an 11-point third quarter.

Penn State scored a season-high 46 points in the first half, and held a 20-point lead over Iowa entering the fourth quarter.

The Lady Lions stalled a bit in the final period, with six turnovers over the course of four minutes. The team finished with 17 turnovers that led to 17 Hawkeyes points, while scoring 12 points off 10 Iowa giveaways. During this time, Banks, Jaylen Williams and Spann got into foul trouble and had to sit while the Hawkeyes went on a 19-3 run to cut Penn State’s lead to six.

“You know Iowa’s going to make a run, they’re at home, the crowd got into the game,” said Washington. “And I thought that we played a little tentative there, for a stretch...But then we called a couple time outs, collected ourselves, and then we started executing offensively and got some stops defensively, and that was big. Then they had to foul, and we went to the free throw line and made our free throws.”

The Centre Daily Times covered the game via broadcast and statcast.

Notes: The Lady Lions scored 28 points in the paint to the Hawkeyes’ 24...Penn State was 21 of 24 from the free throw line...The Lady Lions travel to Illinois next for Saturday’s 3 p.m. tip.

This story was originally published January 20, 2016 at 10:47 PM with the headline "Lady Lions snap losing streak at Iowa, 82-69."