Tyra Grant was doing more than what was asked of her.
The Lady Lions' leading scorer is used to carrying the team, but for the first eight minutes of Sunday's game, Grant was the entire offense.
Like she's done so many times throughout her collegiate career, she knocked down a couple 3-pointers, took some hard drives to the hoop and made her way to the free-throw line, en route to scoring her team's first nine points.
While it took her teammates a while to settle down and get into the flow of the game, once they did, it took a huge burden off of Grant's shoulders. Michigan State (11-7, 2-5 Big Ten) focused on slowing down the senior, while the other Lady Lions took advantage of the Spartans' defense by stepping up and solidifying the offense.
It's the balanced offensive attack that's helped the Lions (13-4, 5-2) win eight of their last 10 games.
"That's the great thing about having a great player like Ty," Penn State coach Coquese Washington said. "When we need her to step up and carry the team she can do that. ... But eventually her teammates figure it out and they are able to help her out."
For a player like Grant, who has led her team in scoring every year since she was a freshman, drawing double teams from opponents allows her teammates to thrive.
While Grant finished the game with 23 points -- her 10th 20-point performance of the season -- freshmen Alex Bentley and Nikki Greene had 14 and 12 points, respectively. The Spartans had to switch from man coverage to a 2-3 zone to try to slow down the Lions, but each time the defense changed, Penn State proved it had plenty of players that could step up and score.
"It's a big relief for me," Grant said of having teammates who are willing to help balance the offense. "I don't know when teams are going to realize that they can't just focus in on me. We have Alex Bentley, Nikki [Greene], against Northwestern we had Marisa [Wolfe]. We have everybody...It takes a lot of pressure off of me to see that they can deny me all day, and Alex is going to come down and make the shot, or Julia [Trogele], or we can get it into the post ."
Part of the reason why the Lions are averaging 69 points per game is because they are able to go on quick scoring spurts. In the win at Iowa on Jan. 14 the Lions went on a 11-0 run in just a matter of two minutes. And it wasn't just Grant who was taking all the shots, as Bentley accounted for five of the 11 points.
Against Michigan State it was the same type of scoring rally that allowed the Lions to come back after being down by as many as nine points. This time, it was junior Julia Trogele who hit a 3-pointer, followed by Bentley and Grant who helped tie the game just three minutes after going down by nine points.
The Lions' balanced attack was something Spartans' head coach Suzy Merchant said her team didn't have, and she attributed Penn State's success to Grant's ability to create opportunities for her teammates.
"We don't have a 20-point scorer, and they have a 20-point scorer, plus an 11-point scorer, plus seven and seven," Merchant said. "The balance is more potent because you have to really concentrate so much on Tyra that other kids have opportunities. I think balance is what every team wants to get to...and I thought Penn State had that."
