During the opening two minutes of the second half of yesterday's Penn State women's basketball game against Drexel, Dragon forward Gabriella Marginean scored all seven of her team's points to give Drexel its first lead in more than 18 minutes of play.
Marginean had scored 23 points during the game's first 22 minutes.
The scoring barrage forced Lady Lion coach Coquese Washington to add a wrinkle to her defense, which allowed Penn State to subdue Marginean for much of the game -- she scored only three points during the game's final 18 minutes.
To limit Marginean's touches, Washington called for a full-court trap, which Drexel coach Denise Dillon said gave her team trouble.
"They extended the defense so there was a little panic," Dillon said. "We were a little out of sync with the full court press and then a little bit of panic set in when we got to the half court."
While the defensive change limited Marginean's scoring, the Dragons still shot 42 percent from the field.
Washington said the effort on defense improved during the second half, but added the Lady Lions allowed Drexel to score too easily. She said the defense lacked intensity, which was discouraging because it had been improving.
In Penn State's last game, the Lady Lions forced 19 turnovers and held South Carolina 12 points under its season average. But yesterday they allowed the Dragons to score six more points than their season average and forced 16 turnovers.
"I thought in some ways maybe we took a step backward today," Washington said. "We had a pretty good defensive effort against South Carolina [Tuesday] and then we came in today and it just wasn't there."
The soft defense may have been enough to get by a smaller Drexel team, but Washington said she is worried about future games.
If the Lady Lions cannot apply more pressure on the defensive end and rebound effectively, she said they will have trouble against the high scoring teams that lurk on Penn State's schedule.
"We have to be better defensively and we have to be better on the boards," Washington said. "Once we get into conference play it's going to get tougher and tougher, and if we don't commit to being a great defensive team, we are going to get into tough battles."
Even though Penn State struggled to stop Drexel, the Lady Lions still tacked another win to their record. But if their defensive woes continue, Washington warned it may be the last victory Penn State experiences for a while.
"I'd rather be five and one than one and five, but it's a long season and you gotta see the big picture," Washington said, "and the big picture is if our defense doesn't continue to improve, we could be at five wins for a long time."
