Basketball: Women's
Lady Lions fall 68-66 in final seconds
INDIANAPOLIS—The No. 1 seeded Lady Lions lost a heartbreaker 68-66 in Saturday night’s second semifinal game in the Big Ten conference tournament to No. 4 seeded Purdue.
The Lions only lead once in the game. With 7:32 remaining in the second half, the Lions went ahead 53-52 before the Boilermakers answered on the other end and took the lead right back.
Boilermaker senior guard Brittany Rayburn hit the game-winning layup with less than two seconds to go.
Penn State had tied the game at 66 all with about 16 seconds remaining and the Boilermakers called a timeout. They set up a play that ended up having Rayburn drive to the hoop and make a play. She did just that and helped the Boilermakers upend the Lions.
Junior guard Alex Bentley led the way for the Lions and scored a game-high 22 points. The Indianapolis native also added four dimes as well.
The Lions were outrebounded 54-32 and that proved to be a major factor in the game, as Purdue was able to control the ball more. Of those 54 rebounds, 19 were offensive boards and helped to give the Boilermakers extra possessions.
They utilized that to their advantage and had a 17-7 advantage on second chance points.
Despite not winning the conference tournament, the Lions are going to be heading to the NCAA tournament. Their seed and location of which they play are not certain, but will become known after the brackets are released a week from this upcoming Monday.