Lady Lions fly past Hawkeyes on Senior Night

Rodney Agee stood near the home bench at halftime of Penn State women’s basketball’s Senior Night game against Iowa on Wednesday, and his eyes watered a bit as he tugged at the hem of his shirt, emblazoned with a No. 1 to match the jersey of his daughter, Candice.

Rodney was in attendance from California for the Lady Lions’ decisive 81-68 win over Iowa to support Candice. He walked out with her as she and fellow senior Brianna Banks were honored before the game.

“She’s not a little girl anymore,” Rodney said, chuckling softly. “She’s my big girl now, she’s a young woman.”

Banks’ mother, Stephanie Rice, and her stepfather were also in attendance to support the fifth-year senior, who transferred from UConn after three years and two national championships.

The pair stood and shouted as Banks opened the scoring for the Lady Lions, knocking down nine of the team’s first 11 points before getting into foul trouble in the second quarter.

“My mom never sits down, so that doesn’t surprise me one bit,” joked Banks.

“She was smiling, she looked like she was having fun,” said Rice at halftime, of Banks’ adrenaline-fueled opening quarter. “She plays so much better when she’s having fun ... I can just tell (she’s emotional). She came out and she was just really focused. ... She started out ready to roll.”

Banks finished the game with 17 points, was 5 of 5 from the free throw line and had five steals.

Agee added 21 points to match both a game high and her career high, highlighted by an and-1 putback to open the third quarter that prompted both she and Rodney, less than 15 feet away in the stands, to identically flex their arms and scream in celebration.

“My parents don’t get to come here for really any games,” said Agee. “So something about (him) being in the crowd just really makes me want to go above and beyond. That’s what they do for me.”

“They both played the way you hope seniors play in their last home game,” said head coach Coquese Washington. “The emotion of a senior’s final home game, it can go one of two ways; they can have that energy and it can propel them to having a fantastic game like these guys did, or sometimes the emotions can overwhelm you and you’re not on your game. So I was really happy to see that both Candice and Bri played really good games.”

Penn State (11-17, 6-11) played arguably one of its best games of the season in front of an electric, albeit slightly diminished crowd.

The team shot 50 percent from the field and scored 24 points off 22 Iowa turnovers, 13 of which were Penn State steals. The Lady Lions also scored 16 fast-break points to Iowa’s four in the true run-and-gun style Washington has preached all season.

“Good offense starts with good defense,” said Washington. “When we’re active and aggressive on the defensive end and we can get going in transition. ... That always helps when you can get layups in transition or you can get spot-3s in for your shooters in transition.”

Redshirt sophomore Lindsey Spann scored 18 points and hit four 3-pointers in the effort (amassing the points on just eight total shots), while freshman Teniya Page had eight points and six assists, and got a well-deserved break on the bench after leading the Big Ten in minutes played up until Wednesday night.

Penn State held an easy double-digit lead throughout most of the game, but Iowa pulled within seven points with just over five minutes to play after Kaliyah Mitchell committed a hard charge and the Hawkeyes capitalized with a 3-pointer on the other end.

Agee knocked down back-to-back layups to put her team back up 11. Banks slid in a layup next off an Agee assist to help stave off the Hawkeyes for good.

“The whole game, we was vibin’,” Banks said with a laugh.

“I love when we have (those type) of interactions, because it makes it special for the crowd,” said Agee. “You get to do a little point to each other and that’s also awesome.”

Agee was sent into the game after a brief stint on the bench with a minute left in the game, knocked down two free throws, and exited to a loud standing ovation from the crowd. Shortly after, Banks was pulled amid an identical ovation and the walk-ons were sent in to finish the game.

“I fought back tears like twice already, I’m really trying to stay strong for my dad’s sake,” said Agee. “It really hit me when we were singing the alma mater (after the game). I don’t know when I’ll get to do that again.”

This story was originally published February 24, 2016 at 9:50 PM with the headline "Lady Lions fly past Hawkeyes on Senior Night."