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Lady Lions Down South Dakota State, 60-50
UNIVERSITY
PARK, PA. – The #11/10 Penn State Lady Lions (9-2) earned a 60-50
victory over the South Dakota State Jackrabbits (6-5) on Sunday at the
Bryce Jordan Center. After entering the half tied at 25, the Lady Lions
outscored South Dakota State 35-25 in the second half to secure the
win. Senior point guard Alex Bentley (Indianapolis, Ind.) led the way
for the Lady Lions with 13 points, nine rebounds and five assists.
With
the five assists, Bentley eclipsed the 500 mark for her career to push
her career total to 503 dimes. Bentley becomes just the sixth player in
Lady Lion history to record 1,000 points, 500 assists and 250 steals,
joining Nancy Kuhl, Tina Nicholson, Jess Strom, Helen Darling and Suzie
McConnell. Additionally, Bentley moved up two spots into 12th place in
the Penn State scoring record books with 1,474 career points.
Senior
Nikki Greene (Diboll, Texas) led all scorers with 17 points to go along
with six rebounds. Junior Maggie Lucas (Narberth, Pa.) scored nine
points while recording a career-high four blocks and five steals.
Senior Mia Nickson (Ashburn, Va.) added nine points and five rebounds
in the win.
The back-and-forth first half
started with South Dakota taking a 4-2 lead on a Leah Dietel jumper
following a Bentley layup. Greene succeeded on an old-fashioned
three-point play a minute and a half into the contest to give the Lady
Lions a 5-4 advantage. The Jackrabbits scored the next six and took a
10-5 advantage onthree-pointers by Ashley Eide and Gabrielle Boever.
Then leading 13-7, South Dakota State surrendered six-straight points
to the Lady Lions on a jumper by Bentley, a layup by Greene and another
layup be Bentley.
With the contest tied up at
13, the Jackrabbits put together a 6-2 run to take a19-15 lead with
8:33 to go in the first half. Penn State would put a quick end to that
when Bentley grabbed a steal and scored on a breakaway layup. Redshirt
junior Dara Taylor (Wilmington, Del.) then tied it up to 19 on a steal
and layup of her own with 6:42 to go. A steal and layup by Ashley Eide
helped the Jackrabbits retake the lead at the 5:28 mark, but Lucas
answered with a step back jumper at the elbow to tie it up at 21.
Heading
into the second half tied at 25, the Lady Lions opened things up with a
7-0 run. Greene hit a jumper in the paint to get things started,
followed by a Lucasfree throw. Greene converted on another layup and
Bentley assisted Taylor on a fastbreak layup to give the Lady Lions a
32-25 advantage with 17:29 to go in the second half, forcing a South
Dakota State timeout.
Penn State went up 34-28
on a Bentley field goal at 13:40 and then took an eight-point lead on a
Nickson layup 31 seconds later. Nevertheless, the Jackrabbits scored
the next five points on a three by Chloe Cornemann and afastbreak layup
by Tara Heiser. Lucas halted the South Dakota State threat by sinking
two free throws to give Penn State a 38-33 lead. Greene muscled her way
through in the paint to make a layup and up the Lady Lion lead to seven
(40-33). Following a field goal for the Jackrabbits, the Lady Lions
netted the next seven points on free throws by Bentley, a Nickson
turnaround jumper and Lucas’ first three of the game for a 47-35 Penn
State lead to force a South DakotaState timeout with 7:03 remaining.
Freshman
Candice Agee (Victorville, Calif.) notched her second field of the game
on a hook shot in the lane at the 5:20mark to give the Lay Lions a
50-37 lead. Then with 2:50 remaining, Edwards hit back-to-back jumpers
to give Penn State a 56-43 lead. Greene put the Lady Lions at the
60-point mark as she scored the final four Penn State points. A three
at the buzzer by Eide resulted in the final count of 60-50.
GAME
NOTES: With the five assists, Alex Bentley became the ninth player in
school history to eclipse the 500-assist mark (503) … Bentley is just
the sixth player in Lady Lion history to record 1,000 points, 500
assists and 250 steals, joining Nancy Kuhl, Tina Nicholson, Jess Strom,
Helen Darling and Suzie McConnell … With 15 points, Bentley upped her
career point total to 1,474 tallies and moved into 12th place on Penn
State’s career scoring list, passing Katina Mack (1992-96) and Jess
Strom (2002-05) … With today’s win, the Lady Lions extend their
non-conference home court winning streak to 12 games, tied for the
third largest in school history … With six rebounds, Nikki Greene moved
into eighth on PSU’s career rebounding list (810), passing Amanda Brown
(2004-07) … Maggie Lucas finished with nine points, her lowest scoring
output since tallying nine points against Purdue on March 3, 2012 …
With six three-point field goals attempted, Lucas tied Tyra Grant
(2007-10) for third place on Penn State’s career three-point field
goals attempted list with 531 … Lucas recorded a career-high four
blocks, passing her previous career high of two rejections, set twice
previously … Tori Walder tied her career-high with three blocks (Wagner
12/18/11) … Bentley pulled in a career-best nine rebounds, surpassing
her previous personal best of seven boards, set twice in her career.
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