Six-foot-four Nikki Greene is used to towering over the opposing players. That wasn't the case Sunday against Michigan State.
For this game, it was Greene being looked down upon.
Going up against 6-foot-9 Allyssa DeHaan and the No. 20 Spartans, Greene and the entire Lady Lions team rose to the occasion and shut down one of the tallest players in women's basketball.
"It doesn't matter how well or how poorly she's played. When she is on the floor, you notice her," Penn State coach Coquese Washington said. "She's a presence. We didn't shy away from the challenge of guarding her."
However, DeHaan isn't just tall.
On top of her height, the Spartan center is also one of the most gifted and accomplished players in the Big Ten and all of college basketball.
Her resume includes three selections to the All-Big Ten team, and she is less than 25 rejections away from the women's all-time NCAA record for blocks.
But in this game, it was the five-inch-shorter Greene who had DeHaan's number as the Spartan finished with only five points and three rebounds in the Lady Lions upset victory.
"I think it is big," Washington said of her team shutting down DeHaan. "She is one of the best players in our conference. She is one of the best players in the country, quite honestly."
Although she is almost always the tallest player on the court, Greene said this was not the first time she has faced a player of DeHaan's height.
Over the summer, the freshman played a few games against Baylor's 6-foot-8 Brittney Griner, which Greene said gave her a little technique to use against Michigan State's center.
Greene and DeHaan fought for positioning underneath the basket nearly every time the two were on the court together, trading little pushes and shoves in the post.
And every time a timeout was called and Greene came to the bench, Washington pulled her aside to speak privately with the young center about her tough challenge.
"Coach was just telling me, 'you're not going to block every shot that she shoots,' " said Greene, who tied a career high with 12 points along with seven rebounds. "I tried to keep that in the back of my mind, to not go for the block every time she shoots. I was prepared well because Coach tried to discipline me about that."
After the game, Michigan State coach Suzy Merchant said DeHaan was "kind of under the weather and feeling sick," which limited the center to only 20 minutes of play.
Regardless of her health, when DeHaan was on the court, she was virtually a non-factor.
Racing around the top of the key on offense trying to set picks for her teammates, DeHaan looked lost and confused hovering over the smaller players as the freshman Greene played the more physical game.
"I thought [going in to the game] Allyssa was a good matchup for [Greene] but Al just didn't really perform as well as she could have," Merchant said. "Greene did a nice job ... stepping up for her team and doing a nice job. She definitely was a difference maker."
