Lady Lions wary of No. 7 Ohio State despite last week’s big upset

At the beginning of the Penn State women’s basketball team’s season, head coach Coquese Washington laughed a bit when asked if freshman point guard Teniya Page would see a lot of time on the court.

The Lady Lions already would be returning guard Lindsey Spann, as well as fifth-year senior transfer Brianna Banks, and in the traditional sense, playing a three-guard system was not something many expected of Washington and her team this season.

After her chuckle subsided, Washington assured the media that yes, Page would be getting a prodigious amount of playing time.

And Page has done nothing but prove she deserves every second.

The true freshman is tied for the team lead in 20-plus-point games with five, leads the team in scoring with 15.8 points per game, and leads the Big Ten in minutes played per game entering Sunday’s 2 p.m. contest against No. 7 Ohio State at the Bryce Jordan Center.

She has played every minute of the Lady Lions’ past four games, including their most recent upset of No. 17 Michigan State on the road, in which Page scored 20 points and hit 10 of the team’s last 13 points to stave off the Spartans for good.

“I thought she was phenomenal,” said head coach Coquese Washington, via phone after the game last Thursday. “She played with a lot of poise and a lot of confidence down the stretch. This is probably the most poised and confident that I’ve seen her in any game this year. She really had a command for what needed to happen, in particular on the offensive side of the floor.”

As a former guard herself, Washington is known for having high expectations of her point guards, and Page continues to hit her coach’s high bar, especially with her clutch baskets and assists late in the team’s last win.

“That’s the growth I’ve really seen from (Page) all year,” said Washington. “She understood what shots we needed to get as a team, who needed to have the ball, and when to call her number.”

Her poise is something the team will definitely need to lean on Sunday. The Buckeyes (20-4, 12-1) are on an eight-game winning streak and beat the Lady Lions 88-70 when the teams last played in February of 2015.

Ohio State ranks No. 3 in the nation and No. 1 in the conference in scoring, with 86.2 points per game, and has scored at least 90 points in 11 of its games this season. The Buckeyes are led by guard Kelsey Mitchell, who is the second-highest scorer in the Big Ten at 24.9 points per game. Mitchell is shooting 47 percent from the field and 40 percent from 3-point range.

The Buckeyes will likely continue to be a threat on the perimeter. The team averages 7.8 3-pointers per game despite 36 percent shooting from the 3-point line.

While the Lady Lions had plenty of reason to celebrate this week after their upset, Washington said immediately after the game the team knows exactly how tough it will be to host Ohio State and its prolific offense.

“It’s a really big win, a great win for us, but at the same time we’ve got another big opponent coming up and we’ve got to be ready to tackle the Buckeyes,” she said.

This story was originally published February 13, 2016 at 8:16 PM with the headline "Lady Lions wary of No. 7 Ohio State despite last week’s big upset."