Lady cagers face must-win situation against Hawkeyes

At the beginning of the season, the Iowa and Penn State women's basketball programs were looked upon with great traditions, top talent and were to contend for first place in the Big Ten.

In both teams' cases, two out of three is bad.

Now they are compared as two squads looking for big wins that could give them a first-round bye in the Big Ten tournament and a possible spot in the NCAA tournament.

The Lady Lions (13-9, 6-6 Big Ten) and Hawkeyes (11-10, 6-6) clash at 5 p.m. Sunday at the Bryce Jordan Center in front of a nationally televised audience on ESPN2. Both teams are tied for fifth place in the conference, and each has important road games leading up to the big clash.

"We're taking it one game at a time," Penn State coach Rene Portland said, giving more concern about tonight's game at Michigan (12-9, 4-8) than Sunday's contest. "We need to get two wins."

After getting a much needed weekend sweep against Michigan and Indiana, the Lady Lions feel upbeat about the rest of the season, thanks to a revamped scoring attack led by sophomore guard Shauntai Hall, who averaged 19 points during the weekend.

"We're just going to stick with her," Portland said. "Shauntai has a nice mix, penetrating to the basket and shooting jumpers."

- Hawkeye coach Angie Lee

"I'm gun shy to talk about us right now because we're up and down," Lee said. "Penn State and us have been so similar throughout this conference season. We've got to play our game. We've got to have tremendous defensive intensity and tremendous patience within our offense."

The Hawkeyes feel they must win the rest of their games to get a good seed for the conference tournament in Indianapolis. But with a trip to Wisconsin tonight before heading to Happy Valley, the stakes are high.

"This is a tough weekend," Lee said. "We need 'em both. We're not going to feel good about a split."

Michigan is still patting Sue Guevara on the back after the athletic department dropped the interim off her title as head coach. But the fact remains the Wolverines have lost three straight and seven of nine. A win tonight could put Michigan back into the winning ways and give them some momentum.

Penn State is optimistic going into this weekend. The Lady Lions finally have scoring coming from someone other than senior forward Angie Potthoff. But with two of the top three teams in the conference coming into the center next weekend, Penn State wants to gain confidence and carry that into the conference tournament.

"We're just looking to the next game," Portland said. "We've got to take care of ourselves."