It is a rallying cry the Lady Lions will repeat ad infinitum: protect the Bryce Jordan Center. And, in an inconsistent, sometimes sloppy fashion, that is just what they did.
Penn State (5-5) finally returned to the Jordan Center after a disastrous road swing in which it lost all five games and reestablished a winning form that was cultivated with a 4-0 start this season. But it wasn't exactly how the Lady Lions would've liked to earn the win.
After an electric opening half, the Lady Lions came out slumping in the second. Instead of struggling to put up points -- the 80 points scored was a season-high -- as they did throughout the recent road skid, the Lady Lions succumbed to a poor defensive effort. Plagued by sloppiness and physically dominated on the glass, they squandered a 20-point lead.
In particular, the Lady Lions had a difficult time grabbing rebounds on missed foul shots.
"I think we played a little bit more aggressive and we got ourselves to the line," Old Dominion guard T.J. Jordan said.
"We rebounded the ball much better, and I think that gave us a little more confidence in what we were doing."
The Lady Lions had 17 turnovers on the game, 10 of which came in the second half and only managed to get 13 rebounds in the second half.
"I think the biggest thing in the turnaround was our lack of defensive rebounding," Portland said. "That just gave [Old Dominion] such great momentum."
Running opposite their performance through a good portion of the second half, the Lady Lions shot 60 percent from the field in the first and went into the intermission up 14. They didn't even attempt a 3-point field goal and still managed to put up a season-high for points in the first half (47).
Freshman guard Tyra Grant had 16 of her 29 points at that point in the game, Amanda Brown had 11 and Brianne O'Rourke served up seven assists. Conversely, Old Dominion turned the ball over 10 times and was forced to lean almost exclusively upon Jordan for offensive production. It makes the Lady Monarch's 21-6 run early in the second half all the more surprising.
"I think they were a little shocked and surprised because they were up by 20 points or more, so I think they were kind of on their heels a bit," Jordan said.
But with the game on the line down the stretch, after riding highs and lows and floundering in the face of a steady Old Dominion charge -- Penn State managed to come through.
