Lady cagers hope to end home season with sweep

Last year, the Lady Lion basketball team headed into its Valentine's Day weekend with matchups against Michigan and Iowa clinging to hopes of making the NCAA Tournament.

The Wolverines and Hawkeyes, however, destroyed those aspirations and helped halt a seven-year run of consecutive tournament appearances for Penn State.

This weekend, Penn State (13-9, 7-5 Big Ten) will try to prevent history from repeating itself. At 7:30 tonight in The Bryce Jordan Center the Lions will look to complete a season sweep of Michigan (15-7, 7-5) in their final home game of the season. Penn State will then head West for a Sunday showdown with Iowa.

Penn State and Michigan are fighting for their tournament lives. Both are locked in a three-way tie for fourth place in the Big Ten with Purdue, and a loss tonight could hamper any hopes either team has of impressing the NCAA Tournament selection committee.

"We are keeping ourselves focused," Lion guard Jamie Parsons said. "It's important to be playing good basketball with Big Tens and NCAAs coming up."

The Lions overcame a 13-point second-half deficit to defeat Michigan last month in Ann Arbor. Andrea Garner led the way racking up 25 points and grabbing 12 rebounds. Jamie Parsons carried Penn State in overtime, scoring six of the Lions' eight points in the extra frame.

Michigan had last month's game under control until it fell victim to Penn State's full-court pressure. As they have much of the year, the Wolverines struggled with the press and turned the ball over 19 times.

"We have to take better care of the basketball. We turned it over too many times down the stretch," Michigan coach Sue Guevara said. "This game is huge for us. With the dogfight going on in the Big Ten, every game is monumental."

Iowa (12-9, 9-3) started turning its season around last month when it defeated Penn State 78-69 in the center. All-Big Ten forward Tangela Smith gave the Lions fits, scoring 19 points, grabbing eight rebounds and blocking four shots.

The Hawkeyes' biggest problem has been injuries. Guard Nadine Domond is the only player to have started every game for Iowa. To make matters worse for the Hawkeyes, All-Big Ten candidates Angela Hamblin and Tiffany Gooden have missed a combined 26 games.

When Iowa has not been ravaged by injuries it has shown the ability to fulfill its lofty preseason expectations. Two weeks ago they handed No. 9 Illinois a resounding 82-71 defeat.

"The Iowa situation is that you cannot let them shoot 60 percent against you and they've been doing that against many teams," Penn State coach Rene Portland said. "We have to play better defense against them and challenge their shooters a little more. Hopefully we'll play a better game when we go out there to play them."