The mirror has two faces.
One of them is No. 24 Vanderbilt, which bears a striking resemblance to the other — No. 13 Penn State.
The two teams will showcase their similarities at 4:30 p.m. Sunday in The Bryce Jordan Center in the second game of the Big Ten-SEC Challenge. Michigan State will meet Alabama in Tuscaloosa at 2:30.
The Commodores are 5-1 heading into tonight's home contest against Western Kentucky. Like Penn State, Vanderbilt is averaging more than 83 points per game this season, and is getting the job done with a multitude of freshmen.
"We were the youngest team in the NCAA (tournament) last year and we got even younger," Vanderbilt women's basketball coach Jim Foster said. "Six of our top eight players this year are freshmen."
Forward Jenni Benningfield, guard Juli Colli and Hillary Hager are the top rookies for the young 'Dores, who are led by a sophomore. Center Chantelle Anderson is pacing Vanderbilt with 19 points per game in her second season.
"She's matured a lot as a player," Foster said, although he added that Anderson is just one cog in the Commodore offensive machine.
"We have a number of players who can score and are relatively unselfish," he said. "On any given night, we don't know who's going to score for us."
Penn State (4-3) knows where its points will come from. While Vanderbilt relies on the low-post play of Anderson and junior forward Zuzi Klimesova, the Lady Lions look to the high-octane perimeter game of senior Lisa Shepherd and freshman Kelly Mazzante. The duo is averaging more than 36 points per game.
Penn State women's basketball coach Rene Portland knows the two teams will be able to score, but the Lions will have to worry about the size Vanderbilt brings to the table.
"They're just big," she said. "Not only are their guards and forwards tall but they shoot the ball real well. They have big tall kids that can rebound as well as shoot the three."
Portland also was quick to praise Anderson.
"She's very mobile," she said. "She's your ideal post player. She has size and agility, and they do a really nice job of coaching her."
As far as the combined 10 freshmen that will suit up for Sunday's game, Portland said that the abundance of young players in women's basketball today can be seen in several of the nation's top teams.
"I think the whole country's doing it, to be quite honest," she said. "The WNBA is salivating over the group of seniors right now, but they'll be even more excited four years from now."
Penn State and Vanderbilt haven't faced each other since 1994, when the Lions defeated the Commodores 86-65 in Rec Hall. Penn State holds a 3-1 advantage in the overall series. The Lions' last appearance in the Big Ten-SEC Challenge came in 1992, when they lost in a 82-81 squeaker to Tennessee.
