With tonight's 85-53 win over Northwestern, the Penn State women's basketball team picked up its first Big Ten win and, at 6-0, remains undefeated the Bryce Jordan Center.
"We're certainly happy to get our first Big Ten win," Penn State head coach Rene Portland said, "and we're pleased to continue the streak at home."
But the Lady Lions can't afford to get too comfortable. They are 8-8 overall — 1-2 in the Big Ten — and still on the rebound from a tumultuous stretch.
The University Park homecoming, which served as the Lady Lions' first game of 2007, is on the heels of another lousy road swing in which they dropped three of four games. And with the mysterious departure of junior guard Adrienne Squire after Christmas, the rumor mill has begun churning regarding the state program.
Squire, who created a 12-point-per-game void when she left, wasn't missed too much tonight, though. Penn State took advantage of error-prone Northwestern (6-9, 0-2 Big Ten) and put on a sublime first half shooting effort to coast to the win.
In the first half, the Lady Lions went on a 14-0 run that spanned five minutes, commanding a lead and went into the intermission up, 49-22. By game's end it was the highest point total the team has scored all season and the largest margin of victory (32).
Junior guard Kam Gissendanner had a season-high 23 points, freshman guard Tyra Grant had 18 and senior center Amanda Brown had 17.
"Once you make one, you kinda get your confidence and the rest takes care of itself," said Gissendanner, who estimated that she's taken 300-400 shots per practice during the holiday break. "My teammates just got me in the right places tonight."
Nine out of 10 players on the Penn State roster finished with more points than they average per game for the season. Mashea Williams "tweaked," her knee, according to Portland, and did not see too much action late in the game. She had two points; she is averaging three points per game.
The first half performance, however, was crucial for Penn State.
"It was a 20 minute game, and it was over at the half," Northwestern head coach Beth Combs said. "We lost the game in the first half. We didn't come out ready to play. That's the game. That 20 minutes was the ball game."
The Lady Lions shot an astronomical 72.7 percent from the field in the first half. Penn State was perfect from behind the 3-point arc (2-for-2) and the free-thrown line (15-for-15) in the first, too.
Penn State also dominated on the inside, scoring 24 of its first half points from inside the paint. Brown had 12 points and Gissendanner, who also mucked it up on the inside, had 17 points in the first half. Gissendanner made 7-of-7 first half free throws.
But Northwestern helped Penn State's cause, too, and committed 15 turnovers in the first half. The Wildcats only shot 33.3 percent from the field in the opening half and had no one scoring in double-figures.
"It was a tale of two halves, I'm going to be honest," Portland said. "The first half we did a lot of great things; we shot the ball very, very well. I thought defensively we did a good job.
"Second half, we weren't as focused, but need we did do what we needed to do to get everybody in the game, which was very, very good, to get everybody to scoring and, certainly, come off with a good win."
