Season of Change
After last season's snub, lady cagers make most of 1998-99

By WILLIAM KALEC
Collegian Staff Writer

Andrea Garner was not ready to let the 1998-99 season slip away, evidenced by her reaction to a seemingly routine play.

A half an hour before the play, Garner and the rest of the Penn State women's basketball team were in the midst of turning what many thought was an impossible dream into reality. In the first half of its second-round contest in the NCAA Tournament, Penn State had Louisiana Tech coach Leon Barmore ripping off his tie and sports coat and Lady Techsters guard Christie Sides pounding the ball into the floor meriting a technical foul, leaving a capacity crowd nervous.

Last Sunday they had the West Region's No. 1 seed and the No. 3 team in the country frustrated, and it showed.

Penn State had a chance to do what most thought could not be done -- beat the seemingly unbeatable foe.

But that was half an hour earlier.

And now, with the impossible dream quickly becoming just that following a wave of Penn State turnovers that turned a close contest into a lopsided affair, Garner was waving her arms frantically, then clapped her hands after getting fouled. She was looking for anything to help inspire Penn State to come back and prolong a season in which the Lady Lions looked to regain something that was lost -- respect.

"Everyone is looking forward to this season," point guard Helen Darling said back in October during Penn State's basketball media day. "A lot of people are in the gym before and after working on their games. Everyone is ready. I know I am ready."

Penn State was ready to earn the respect that the NCAA Tournament selection committee did not feel the Lions deserved at the end of last season, when it snubbed them from an at-large invitation to the Big Dance.

Nov. 18, 1998 against the lowly Pittsburgh Panthers in front of a scattered Fitzgerald Field House crowd, Penn State was set to take the first step in a season-long journey to prove that the once-proud Lions program was back.

To prove the problems that caused four players to transfer in a span of 10 months were forgotten.

To prove that there would be no more trips to the Women's National Invitation Tournament.

To prove that Penn State could now be referred to as one of women's college basketball's elite programs.

Penn State lost to Pittsburgh, 49-46.

"We can't let this get us down," Garner said in Pittsburgh after the loss. "We can't let one loss determine the whole season."

Instead, they would let the next eight wins determine the direction this edition of Rene Portland's Lions would take.

In the sweltering confines of Richmond's Robins Center during the Wachovia Bank Women's Invitational, Penn State, for the second straight week, turned up the heat on a top-10 opponent in the AP poll.

Alabama, like North Carolina State a week previously in the San Diego State Tournament, ran into a Penn State team that had shook off the disappointment of its opening-night loss and rebounded to play its best basketball of the season.

Garner left the memory of her uneventful five-point night in Pittsburgh as she averaged 23 points in Richmond making her the logical choice for the tournament's Most Valuable Player. Later that week she was named the Big Ten's Player of the Week for her exploits, a distinction she would win again for the week of Feb. 8.

Darling wiped away the tears of disappointment from her brief 17-minute debut against the Panthers to once again reestablish herself as the centerpiece of a backcourt that finished the year as one of Big Ten's best. She led the conference in assists, was twice named the Big Ten Player of the Week and a first-team All-Big Ten selection by the coaches.

Both Garner and Darling have another year of eligibility left, as does All-Big Ten Honorable Mention guard Lisa Shepherd. In fact, everyone except little-used guard/forward Christine Portland and forward Clara Carter will return from a team that reinserted Penn State's women's college basketball program into national prominence.

"After the Pittsburgh game we set a tone for the rest of the season," guard Shawnta Vanzant said. "We beat three ranked teams all in a row and started to show that the first game was a mistake."

Garner made her final mistake of the season with a mere 11.2 seconds remaining against Louisiana Tech -- she picked up her fifth foul.

She slowly walked over to the bench, sat down and let her head sink into her lap. Her efforts to try to rally Penn State in an improbable upset were now over. She scored 18 points, grabbed nine rebounds and did everything physically possible to help her squad.

And Garner did it all on one good knee.

For 30 minutes, Garner played through the pain suffered two days earlier when her knee was dislocated in the Lions' opening-round victory against Virginia.

It was an act of courage, and it did not go unnoticed.

After the horn sounded several Lady Techsters gave Garner a hug. She had gained their respect -- a fitting way to end a season centered around what the Penn State center had just earned.

"We are losing two great seniors and we are really going to miss them," Lions assistant coach Michael Peck told the Penn State Sports Network following the Louisiana Tech loss. "But we are going to be right back next year. Other teams around the country are going to be scared of Penn State."