Hoosiers block lady cager Big Ten hopes

The Penn State women's basketball team's dream of capturing a Big Ten championship is on life support after yesterday's 58-55 loss to Indiana at Assembly Hall.

Indiana all but crushed the Lady Lions' title hopes, with a combination of tenacious defense and clutch shooting. Penn State's loss dropped it into a fourth-place tie in the Big Ten and left it three games behind conference front-runner Illinois with only four games remaining. The Hoosiers' third straight victory vaulted them into sole possession of third-place in the Big Ten and ended a 10-game losing streak against Penn State.

The Hoosiers (17-9, 8-5 Big Ten) played like a much different team than the one the Lions defeated 75-62 last month. Their defense stymied Penn State's attack, holding it to its second lowest point total of the season. Indiana's pressure also forced 19 turnovers and kept the Lions out of sync the entire game.

"The defensive end of the floor is where we won the game," Hoosier coach Jim Izard told the Indiana Daily Student. "It was two twenty minute halves of solid basketball defensively. It was a great weekend for Indiana basketball."

Penn State kept the game close with some solid defense of its own. As it did last month, the Lions' full court press gave Indiana problems, leading to 18 turnovers. At times, though, Penn State let its defensive guard down, and got burned by quick penetration from the Hoosiers' guards.

"Our full court press did a lot of nice things," Portland told the Indiana Daily Student. "There was a lot of penetration from their guards and we got very little help from our post players."

As they have done all year, the Lions (13-9, 7-5) struggled to develop offensive consistency, shooting 38 percent from the field. Starting guards Helen Darling, Jamie Parsons and Christine Portland contributed heavily to the paltry percentage, combining for only six field goals and 13 points.

With the rest of the team struggling to find the basket, center Andrea Garner and guard Lisa Shepherd took it upon themselves to keep Penn State in the game. Garner recorded her eighth double-double of the season, racking up 15 points and 13 rebounds. Shepherd pulled out of a shooting slump and burned the Hoosiers for 12 points on four 3-pointers.

The inside-outside combination of Garner and Shepherd helped pull the Lions within one point late in the game. A running jump shot from the foul line by Darling put Penn State up by one with less than a minute left. Indiana's Cindy Kerns came right back, though, and hit the game-winner 10 seconds later from the left elbow. Kristi Green added two free throws with 19 seconds remaining to provide the winning margin.

Penn State had a chance to send the game into overtime, but Shepherd's desperation 3-pointer was off the mark. Indiana's defense once again made the difference preventing Shepherd from getting a decent look at the basket.

The Lions will try to get back on the winning track when they host Michigan Friday at The Bryce Jordan Center.