April 30, 2013 at 12:33 PM
On Tuesday, coach Coquese Washington and the Lady Lions announced that Sierra Moore will transfer from Duke to Penn State.
Moore transfers after completing her freshman year at Duke. In her rookie campaign, the Hanover, Pa., native averaged 2.5 points per game and 1.0 rebounds per game in 25 games.
Moore will now have to sit out the 2013-14 season due to NCAA transfer rules, but will have three years of eligibility following the 2013-14 season.
“We are really excited to have Sierra join our program,” Washington said in a press release. “She brings tremendous defensive ability and is an outstanding athlete. It’s great to have her back in home in Pennsylvania.”
The Delone Catholic product was a McDonald's High School All-American and will join three others on Penn State's roster: Maggie Lucas, Dara Taylor and Candice Agee.
Moore will be one of eight new additions to Penn State's roster in 2013 as the team has seven recruits coming in. The class ranks the 14th best in the country according to espnW's HoopGurlz.
Here's a link to Moore's highlight video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFiucMrwQH8
April 3, 2013 at 5:32 PM
Even with the Lady Lions early exit from the NCAA Tournament, Maggie Lucas is racking up postseason awards.
She earned her second All-American honor of the week as she was named to the to the 10-player United States Basketball Writers Association (USBWA) All-America team.
Lucas had arguably her best collegiate season, averaging 20.1 points per game, the 16th best in the nation leading Penn State to back-to-back Big Ten regular season titles.
Lucas added to her long list of accolades as she was named a second team All-American by the Associated Press on Tuesday, as well as 2013 Big Ten Player of the Year and selected as All-Big Ten First Team in her junior season.
Listed amongst the nations elite, Lucas is joined by Brittney Griner (Baylor), Skylar Diggins (Notre Dame) and Elena Delle Donne (Delaware).
April 2, 2013 at 5:09 PM
A week after the No. 3-seed Lady Lions were upset by the No. 6-seed Lady Tigers of LSU, junior Maggie Lucas received a little pick me up.
On Tuesday, the Associated Press announced that Lucas made the second-team All-America, receiving the highest honor for a Lady Lion since the AP honored Kelly Mazzante with first team All-America in 2004.
While it's no Final Four or national title trophy for Lucas, it's an award that reflects the shooting guard's tremendous season.
The Narbeth, Pa., native finished the season with the nation's third best three point percentage at 46.2 percent. That helped propel Lucas to score 20.7 points per game, the third best in the Big Ten.
On the second All-America team, Lucas is joined by juniors Alyssa Thomas (Maryland), Chelsea Gray (Duke), senior A'dia Mathies (Kentucky) and sophomore Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis (Connecticut).
The future is bright for Lucas for a first team bid as three of the five of the players named on the first team All-America are seniors. The seniors are Brittney Griner (Baylor), Skylar Diggins (Notre Dame) and Elena Delle Donne (Delaware). While the rest are juniors: Chiney Ogwumike (Stanford) and Odyssey Sims (Baylor).
Senior guard Alex Bentley also received her first All-America honor, receiving an honorable mention. Bentley finished her collegiate career averaging 14.1 points, 3.4 rebounds and 3.5 assists per game.
What do you think of the Associated Press All America list? Did Alex Bentley deserve higher recognition than an honorable mention? Did Maggie Lucas deserve a first team honor? Comment below or tweet us your reactions @TDC_Sports.
March 26, 2013 at 9:14 PM
BATON ROUGE, La. — It’s not every game that No. 3-seeded Penn State (26-5, 14-2 Big Ten) has a depth advantage, but it’s one that they will gladly accept as the Nittany Lions prepare to battle host No. 6-seeded LSU at 9:45 tonight.
The Lions usually find themselves having a smaller bench in terms of players available than their opponents, especially with the loss of senior forward Marisa Wolfe this season due to concussion-like symptoms — their roster was limited from 11 to 10 players. But in the Lions’ game tonight against the Tigers, they will be the team with more options.
To start the season, the Tigers only had eight players listed on their roster and that number could be shortened even more with the possible loss of hometown guard Jeanne Kenney. The junior was injured and carried off of the floor in the Tigers’ 75-71 win over Green Bay and as of the press conferences yesterday, her status for tonight’s game was still uncertain.
With that being the case, the Tigers could have to play with only seven players tonight. However, that has not been an issue for the team all season long and Lions’ coach Coquese Washington hopes that it is a factor that her team can exploit tonight, but is expecting another battle.
“I’m hoping it will be a factor,” Washington said. "But the thing is, they played with limited numbers all year. So they know how to play with seven people the whole game….I don’t see this as something being a big chink in their armor, only having seven people at their disposal. That’s what they have dealt with all season long and they have dealt with it very, very well.”
No matter how many players the Tigers have able to compete tonight, one thing is for certain — the Lions want to dictate the tempo of the game. In the NCAA Tournament the past two seasons, the Lions have scored 80 or more points in every game they have played in Baton Rouge.
“We want to dictate the tempo and one of the ways they seem to start to have success with slowing it down a little bit late in the season,” Washington said. “I think it’s going to be a contrast in styles. We want it up-tempo, they would probably like it a little bit slower. So you know, we’ll see which style can kind of win out.”
MY PREDICTION: LADY LIONS WIN 84-79 AND ADVANCE TO THE SWEET 16 FOR THE SECOND TIME IN AS MANY YEARS.
March 26, 2013 at 9:49 AM
The Daily Collegian Lady Lions reporters Zack Neiner and Katie McKenna break down Penn State's clash with LSU in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
March 24, 2013 at 5:09 PM
BATON ROUGE, La. — The bayou in March? What else is new?
For the second time in as many years, Penn State is back in Louisiana for the first rounds of the NCAA tournament. However, unlike last season, the Lions are a No. 3 seed in the Spokane Region.
Despite being ranked eighth in the most recent AP poll and seeming to have a clear cut advantage over Cal Poly in their first round matchup against the Mustangs slated for 5:15 EST tonight, the Lions remain humble and are not overlooking the Big West champions.
“We see that everyone in the tournament is capable of beating anyone,” junior guard Maggie Lucas said. “Everyone is talented. Cal Poly has a lot of strengths. So, you know, we go into the tournament and we don’t take them lightly. They’re a good team and they’re here, obviously, so they deserve it.”
The Mustangs enter tonight having won 11 of their last 13 contests, which includes two wins in the Big West tournament by an average margin of defeat of 16.5 points per game.
While the Lions and Mustangs don’t seem to have much in common, they both have one similarity — both squads played against Cal State Northridge. The Lions defeated the Matadors in their only matchup of the season in the CSUN Thanksgiving Tournament and the Mustangs split a pair of games with the Matadors.
Other than that, the two squads are completely different from the way they score, tempo of play, and experience that they have in the NCAA Tourney.
The Lions only have one player that has not been to the post-season tournament before — true freshman post player Candice Agee and the Mustangs have an entire squad. Even though they lack experience and are considered to be the underdogs, the Mustangs said they are going to leave it all on the hardwood.
March 23, 2013 at 5:14 PM
BATON ROUGE, La. — After No. 15 Florida Gulf Coast knocked off No. 2 Georgetown 78-68 in the men’s tournament yesterday, I’m sure anything is possible. But the numbers heavily favor Penn State to beat Cal Poly tomorrow night when the two programs square off for the first time in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center at 5:15 p.m.
This is the Lions third consecutive birth in the NCAA Tournament, while the Mustangs have never seen the postseason. Obviously, the experience factor leans heavily in favor of the Lions. Coming from a major conference like the Big Ten also seems to give them an edge in the type of physical play they have seen.
Nonetheless, the Mustangs have earned the right to be here by winning the Big West conference and have experienced some physical play during their season as well.
“I think the athleticism of both of those teams is similar to what we are going to see tomorrow,” said Cal Poly junior center Molly Schlemer, the Big West Player of the Year. “It was a while ago in the early season, so we just have to remember what we did in both of those games. We have to keep going on what that was and playing our game and not letting other people take us out of what we are doing.”
The Lions come into the game averaging 73.5 points per game, good for 14th in the country. They also have an impressive scoring margin of plus 14.7 ppg, while the Mustangs have an advantage of plus 6.1 ppg. In addition, the Lions have scored 80 points or more in a game 11 times this season and they have dropped 95 or more on their opponents four times.
After watching both teams practice for a little while today, it would not surpise me if the Lions would hang 100 on the Mustangs tomorrow night. The Lions’ practice was much more up-tempo and was similar to game speed, while the Mustangs just seemed to do a lot of shooting drills.
Not to take away from the success that the Big West champions had this season, but when comparing them to the Lions, they looked much less experienced. I’m not sure if the jitters are still there, but if the Mustangs play anywhere remotely close to how they practiced in the 15 minutes that I was able to watch practice today, the Lions will be cruising through to a Tuesday night showdown against either host LSU or Green Bay.
Lucas leads the Lions in scoring with 20.5 ppg and is expected to pose a big threat to the Mustangs. Fellow guard Alex Bentley also averages double digits with her 14.0 ppg and both players will be key if the Lions want to make another deep run in this year’s tourney. While the Mustangs know that they cannot completely stop Lucas from finding the bottom of the net, they just hope to keep her from having a huge game.
“Lucas is an excellent player, really, really good shooter, quick shot, green light on whatever,” said Mustangs senior guard Caroline Reeves. “So there’s going to have to be a lot of pressure on her, a lot of trying to get her into her second looks, maybe not her primary options, a lot of help on her from other teammates. It’s definitely going to be a battle and just try to make things a little difficult on her.”
Inside and out, I would give the edge to the Lions and I’m predicting an easy win for the Lions. I’m not saying it’s going to be as big as a blowout as the 101-44 win over Fairleigh Dickinson earlier this season, but then again it is college basketball, and anything is possible.
March 21, 2013 at 11:18 PM
Collegian reporters Katie McKenna and Zack Neiner did a podcast with San Luis Obispo Cal Poly reporter Josh Scroggin to preview Sunday's game between Cal Poly and Penn State.
March 10, 2013 at 11:28 AM
Becca Mills put it best: “Coach loves defense.”
The Michigan State sophomore forward was referencing her coach Suzy Merchant, who was all smiles after her No. 4-seeded Spartans squad knocked off No. 1-seeded Penn State, 54-46, in the semifinals of the Big Ten Tournament on Saturday.
It was the Lady Lions’ (25-5, 14-2 Big Ten) second loss in the past four games, but what may have been more alarming was how the Big Ten regular season champions lost.
They were held to 22.4 percent shooting from the field and scored a season-low 46 points — their lowest total since Feb. 4, 2010 when they netted 44 points in a 65-44 loss, also at the hands of the Spartans.
The only Lion who found any consistency on the offensive end of the floor was junior guard Maggie Lucas. She finished the game with 23 points on 7-for-22 shooting and all of her field goals came from downtown.
Fellow guard Alex Bentley finished with eight points and senior post players Mia Nickson and Nikki Greene each accounted for four points.
After jumping out to an early 16-5 lead, the Lions could not seem to find a rhythm and struggled from the floor. The squad did not hit a shot from the field in the final 12:40 of the first half and was held scoreless for just over seven minutes of play.
The Spartans credited that success to their ability to turn up their defensive pressure.
“We knew that they were really good at attacking to the middle, so we downed the ball screens to take that away,” Mills told the Big Ten Network after the game. “I think that got to them a little bit and took them out of their offensive flow.”
Mills finished the game with 16 points on 7-for-13 from the field and nine rebounds. Teammate and senior guard Jasmine Thomas led the Spartans with 19 points and also snagged six boards.
After falling short of the achieving their hopes of sweeping the conference hardware, the Lions will now have some time off before the NCAA Tournament, which begins Mar. 23.
March 4, 2013 at 5:42 PM
After defeating Nebraska last night to win an outright Big Ten championship, the Lady Lions continued their success today in the Big Ten Conference awards.
Maggie Lucas unanimously took home Big Ten Player of the Year honors. The Narbeth native averaged 20.5 points a game, finishing the season with a team and Big Ten-best 47 percent shooting three-pointers.
"What a wonderful and deserving honor for Maggie," coach Coquese Washington told reporters in Monday's media day. "She has been a consistent player all season long. She continues to work to improve her game and clearly that work has paid dividends."
Lucas becomes the third player to win the award in Lady Lions history. She joins Helen Darling, in 2000, and Kelly Mazzante, who won it in 2003 and 2004.
The junior guard's award complements Washington's second-straight Big Ten Coach of the Year honor.
Washington led the Lady Lions to a 24-4 record, going undefeated at home and clinching a No. 1 seed for the Big Ten Tournament.
Washington's prized senior class also took home awards.
The Big Ten named senior Alex Bentley to the All-Big Ten first team and All-Big Ten defensive team. Bentley averaged a nation's fourth best 3.68 steals per game.
Bentley is joined on the All-Big Ten defensive team by redshirt junior guard Dara Taylor.
Nikki Greene was named to the All-Big Ten third team and Gizelle Studevent was named as the Lady Lions Sportsmanship representative.
The Lions will be back in action Friday when they begin their run in the Big Ten Tournament.
By Zach Neiner
