Lady Lions prepare for Illinois in first round of Big Ten tournament

All in all, it’s not a bad draw.

Sure, the Penn State women’s basketball team (11-18, 6-12) would much prefer to not play on the opening day of the Big Ten tournament in Indianapolis, a Wednesday night matchup against No. 14 seed Illinois.

A No. 11 conference rank means the Lady Lions could potentially play five games in five days, starting with the Illini and then, should they move on to Thursday, facing No. 9 Purdue.

“It’s going to be tough,” said redshirt sophomore guard Lindsey Spann. “You train mentally and physically for things like this. It’s a long season, understanding that and wanting to keep winning. ... You have to push through.”

But without factoring in the obvious fatigue the team will battle, the draw might prove beneficial to the Lady Lions.

Against Illinois, Penn State’s guards and post players match up very well. The Lady Lions beat the Illini behind a 27-point performance from Teniya Page, and Brianna Banks added 12 points while Spann contributed nine. Peyton Whitted was early in the stages of playing a more active low-post role, and pulled in five rebounds while scoring six points. Kaliyah Mitchell, who will likely also start against the Illini for Penn State, had nine points and eight rebounds.

“I think that who you see advance is going to be more of a function of matchups, than necessarily seeding,” said head coach Coquese Washington. “I think (Illinois) is a team that matches up well for us in terms of their big post players, which sometimes for our post players are easier to guard than the undersized smaller posts. So I think that is something that we’ll be able to match up, with Chatrice White.

“And I think they’ve got guards that match up well with our guards. So I think it’s a first-round matchup that I don’t know if there’s any clear advantage either way, but I like how they play and how we play. They’re playing a lot more zone now. ... In some ways they’re kind of mirror images of us. I think it’ll be an interesting first-round matchup.”

Washington said that she will keep her same starting lineup of Whitted, Mitchell, Banks, Page and Spann throughout the tournament.

“I think our rotation, with the lineup of Peyton and Kaliyah inside, has proven to give us a little something the second half of conference play, so we’ll keep going with that,” she said.

Should the team advance, the next round’s game against Purdue is winnable for the Lady Lions, who blew a 17-point lead as the Boilermakers forced double-overtime the last time the two faced off. Penn State got into foul trouble and Purdue ended up cruising by the Lady Lions in the second overtime to win, 88-78.

The winner of that game will play the No. 3 seed Michigan State Spartans, who Penn State upset on the road this season.

Penn State arrived in Indianapolis on Tuesday, and the players will spend their time preparing their bodies for a potentially long week, and their minds for the intensity of the tournament itself.

“Just understanding that your body is going to feel tired, but that what your body’s telling you at that time, you can do more than (is important),” said Spann. “Just really trying to fight through. We want to make it a long week rather than a short week.”

The tournament begins at 1:30 p.m. on the Big Ten Network, and the Lady Lions will play Illinois 25 minutes after the end of the opening game between Wisconsin and Northwestern.

This story was originally published March 1, 2016 at 5:17 PM with the headline "Lady Lions prepare for Illinois in first round of Big Ten tournament."