Lady Lions prepare to host Purdue

Head coach Coquese Washington seems to have finally found a starting five that works, despite a rather lopsided stat sheet from a blowout loss to No. 5 Maryland earlier this week.

It’s guard-heavy, with Lindsey Spann, Brianna Banks and Teniya Page all earning the opening nod, and lacks a true center, instead relying on athletic forwards Peyton Whitted and Kaliyah Mitchell to get physical early.

On the road at Iowa and Illinois, this worked as tough defense and balanced scoring earned the Lady Lions back-to-back wins. Whitted especially sets the tone of the defense, and is a dominant presence on the boards. She grabbed 10 rebounds against Maryland before she fouled out, and the rest of the team had 10 combined.

The Terrapins figured out quickly, however, that without Whitted the team had essentially no low presence that was capable of keeping up with the prodigious talent of center Brionna Jones, and the latter reached 17 points and 12 rebounds before sitting out the entire fourth quarter when the bench went in.

Washington insisted her scheme is all about matchups, but against Jones, who should have been a great matchup for Penn State senior center Candace Agee, the team struggled to maintain a physical box presence and thus Whitted stayed in until she got into foul trouble.

Agee is averaging just 17 minutes per game, during which time she averages 6.8 points per game and 4.6 rebounds. Her counterpart, freshman Ashanti Thomas, has earned a start in five games over the senior (who has started just five herself) and pulls down 2.8 rebounds per game while scoring 1.7 points per game.

While the play of Thomas is improving by the week and, according to Washington, is something to look for in the future, Agee’s numbers have depleted as Big Ten play continues.

She has not started in nine conference games and her minutes have decreased to 16.3, while she is averaging 5.1 rebounds and 6.2 points per game against conference opponents — and Penn State’s play has gone much heavier on fast plays in transition or 15-foot-plus shooting, with hardly an in-between dish to the block to set up a post move.

It might not be the most traditional of schemes, but when Penn State executes, it works well. Washington said the team has looked more and more cohesive in the past few games (barring against Maryland) than in weeks.

The Lady Lions (8-12, 3-6) will likely stick with the aforementioned lineup against Purdue (15-5, 6-3), as (like in the case of Penn State), the team’s top three scorers are guards.

April Wilson averages 15.6 points per game, Ashley Morrissette averages 11.8, and Bridget Perry complements them with 11.4 — and the trio backs up their scoring with fast, aggressive defense.

Purdue leads the Big Ten in blocked shots per game and ranks second in the conference in steals per game, with 5.0 and 8.9, respectively. The Boilermakers also average just 13.5 turnovers per game, and Wilson posts an impressive 2.88 assist-to-turnover ratio, and is shooting 44.2 percent from the field.

Detrimental for the Lady Lions is the fact that their matchup against Maryland earlier this week was moved due to weather, so the team has had only two days to prepare for the Boilermakers.

This story was originally published January 29, 2016 at 10:47 PM with the headline "Lady Lions prepare to host Purdue."