Women's basketball: No. 1 Lady Lions pull away from Ohio State and advance to semifinals of Big Ten tournament

It was not the most complete win of the season, but it got the job done. Thanks to a big run in the second half, Penn State was able to pull away from Ohio State and ride into the Big Ten tournament semifinals on a 76-66 win over the Buckeyes.

The Lady Lions (25-4, 14-2 Big Ten) only saw scoring from six players, but were able to notch their third-consecutive win over the Bucks for the first time since the 2002-2003 season. Senior guard Alex Bentley led the Lions with 20 points, while Maggie Lucas and Nikki Greene added 18 and 17 respectively.

Lucas scored a majority of her points in the second half, but coach Coquese Washington credited much of the Lions’ success to Greene’s ability to come alive.

“We wanted to make sure we got up and down the court, but I thought Nikki Greene showed up in a big way the second half and she did a great job of getting position and attacking,” Washington told the Big Ten Network after the game. “That kind of gave us a lot of confidence and some momentum.”

Only up by two points at the break, the Lions outscored the Buckeyes 43-35 in the second half to pick up their 25th win of the season. One of the major components for the turnaround was the tenacious defense that the Lions played after halftime.

They took away the Buckeyes' abilities to drive to the hoop and defended junior center Ashley Adams much better. Adams had nine points at the break, and Washington told the Big Ten Network at halftime that the Lions would have to defend her better. Adams finished the night with just 13 points.

With the victory, Penn State will play No. 4 Michigan State at 7:30 tonight. The Lions are a perfect 4-0 against the Spartans this season.

“[Washington] reminds us every day that we have a target on our back and if we don’t bring it we can get beat,” Lucas told the Big Ten Network. “We don’t want that to happen at this point in the season, we want to keep playing.”