Shepherd adjusting to starting role

By DONNIE COLLINS
Collegian Staff Writer

When times have been tough and the score tight for the Penn State women's basketball team this season, Rene Portland has never had a need to worry about not having a clutch shooter to summon off the bench.

After all, the coach could always count on Lisa Shepherd.

Against Illinois Friday night, Portland did just that. Coming off the bench on a night when no other Lady Lion scored more than 14 points, Portland's ace in the hole scored a career-high 28 points, including a near-perfect 6 for 7 performance from behind the 3-point arc, in Penn State's 94-85 loss to the Fighting Illini.

Shepherd's outing provided a spark for the Lions (13-5, 5-3 Big Ten) and kept them breathing in a nip-and-tuck conference battle. But ultimately, it also cost Portland her star reserve in Penn State's 95-48 win over Indiana Sunday.

With starting forward Christine Portland's offensive struggles continuing, coach Portland looked for her secret weapon a little earlier than expected -- during the team's Saturday personnel planning session, to be exact.

It was then that the coach told Shepherd she would be starting her second game of the season against the Hoosiers -- the team for which her sister, Stacie, played in the early ‘90s -- in place of Christine Portland, who scored just 13 points in the Lions' last five conference games.

Coach Portland said the move was made as much to revive her daughter's confidence in her shooting as it was to find a way to insert Shepherd's instant offense into the starting lineup.

"Christine has lost a little confidence in her shooting, but her floor game is still good," Portland said. "We didn't want to lose that. It was a good decision for both of the players."

Seen mainly as a defensive specialist, Christine Portland came into Sunday's action averaging slightly less than five points and two rebounds per game -- lowest among regular starters. In the meantime, Shepherd was torching opponents to the tune of 13.2 points per game, including a team-high 31 3-pointers.

Despite the prolific numbers, Shepherd had not yet achieved the success in the starting role that Portland had. In her only other career start, a 72-54 loss at the hands of Ohio State on Dec. 28, Shepherd failed to score a single point, missing on all 10 of her field goal attempts and both her free throws.

That performance haunted Shepherd before the Indiana game. But the sophomore from Richmond, Ind., took Sunday's game as an opportunity to exorcise the ghosts still lingering from her horrific experience as a starter.

"It's always nice to start," Shepherd admitted. "I just tried to stay focused and not think about the last game I started.

"I'm not the type of person that puts a lot of pressure on myself."

Shepherd scored just nine points against the Hoosiers, slightly below her average, in her first start since the Ohio State debacle.

But putting up the big offensive numbers against Indiana like she did two nights before in Champaign, Ill., wasn't exactly Shepherd's plan.

"Our main focus tonight was defense," Shepherd said. "We wanted to come out strong tonight and show the people that the Illinois game was a big mistake."

Shepherd also hopes to prove to everyone that her insertion into the starting lineup wasn't a mistake, either.