Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1462941
4 8 A P R I L 2 0 2 2 W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M WOMEN'S BASKETBALL C arolyn Kieger did not hold back in the news conference that followed Penn State's 75-50 loss to Rutgers on March 2 in the first round of the Big Ten Women's Basketball Tournament. It had taken the Scarlet Knights less than two minutes to turn a one-point deficit into a nine-point lead in the first half. They led by double digits for all but the first 87 seconds of the second half and went on to post their most lopsided Big Ten victory of the season. None of which sat well with Kieger. You can't take anything for granted when you're the 12th seed in a 14-team tournament, but a 25-point loss to the tourney's 13th seed was not how the Lady Lions' head coach envisioned the season ending. "Obviously, we're very disappointed in how we played today — the fight, the level of intensity, the toughness, lack thereof, that we had," she said. "Penn State deserves better. The jersey deserves better. The game deserves better." The Scarlet Knights had gone into the game ranked next-to-last in the Big Ten in scoring offense and topped their per-game average by 17 points against Penn State. Even so, Kieger pointed to the Lady Lions' performance on the of- fensive end, particularly their difficul- ties with spacing, as indicative of a lack of mental toughness. "That's what happens when adver- sity hits," she said. "We don't run of- fense and we over-dribble and we kind of go into an over-dribble and not-pass game, and that's what happened again tonight. It's been the Achilles heel of this team. When we get nervous and anxiety hits or a run is happening, we shut down. We shut down mentally and we just kind of lose our heads, and we've got to fix that." The Lady Lions will have eight months to address that issue and more — problems that combined to produce the program's seventh non-winning re- cord in the past eight years. Among the other difficulties: a po- rous defense that gave up a Big Ten- worst 74.9 points per game. Opponents shot 43.3 percent against Penn State, the third-highest rate in the conference, and they were especially effective from long range, hitting a league-high 36.4 percent of their three-point attempts against PSU. Of the 10 players on the roster with re m a i n i n g e l i g i b i l i ty, t h e b i g ge s t name is Makenna Marisa. As a junior, Marisa finished second in the Big Ten in scoring with a 22.2-point average and earned first-team all-conference honors. The Lady Lions also return guard Leilani Kapinus, who came on strong at the end of the year after missing her entire true freshman season due to a knee injury. A Big Ten All-Freshman choice, Kapinus was a defensive force — she was one of just eight players in Division I with more than 30 blocks and more than 55 steals — and she became more assertive offensively as the season went on, averaging 10.6 points against Big Ten foes. Against Rutgers, Kapinus and Marisa were the only Penn State players to reach double figures, finishing with 16 and 15 points, respectively. Kapinus also pulled down 13 rebounds, another impressive showing in her late-season surge. But they went a combined 8 of 33 from the floor, so even though they hit some shots, there were a lot of empty possessions, too. After the game, Marisa said she'll be looking to take on a bigger leadership role in the year to come. "I think I need to push my teammates to be consistent," she said. "That's something we're going to work on in the offseason and just getting back to playing Penn State basketball, playing fast, being tough. "Something we didn't bring [against Rutgers] was toughness, and that's just something we've got to get back to." ■ In her debut season, guard Leilani Kapinus averaged 10.6 points per game in Big Ten play. PHOTO COURTESY PENN STATE ATHLETICS Lady Lions Look To Develop Tougher Mindset M AT T H E R B | M A T T @ B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M 2021-22 RESULTS Date Opponent Result Nov. 9 Long Island W, 85-66 Nov. 11 Rider W, 83-69 Nov. 16 Delaware State W, 120-51 Nov. 21 at Clemson L, 67-64 Nov. 26 St. John's* W, 80-75 Nov. 27 Iowa State* L, 93-59 Nov. 28 Kent State* L, 81-74 Dec. 2 at Boston College L, 86-69 Dec. 6 at Indiana L, 70-40 Dec. 9 Rutgers W, 52-48 Dec. 12 Youngstown State W, 78-58 Dec. 18 at Duquesne W, 68-60 Dec. 22 Towson Canceled Jan. 6 at Maryland L, 106-78 Jan. 13 Michigan L, 74-57 Jan. 16 Illinois W, 90-72 Jan. 20 at Northwestern W, 63-59 Jan. 23 at Wisconsin L, 69-57 Jan. 25 Iowa L, 107-79 Jan. 27 Michigan State L, 79-58 Jan. 30 Maryland L, 82-71 Feb. 3 at Nebraska L, 76-61 Feb. 6 Northwestern L, 78-72 Feb. 9 at Purdue L, 81-77 Feb. 13 at Rutgers L, 71-62 Feb. 17 Nebraska W, 83-76 Feb. 21 at Michigan State W, 79-71 Feb. 24 at Ohio State L, 78-55 Feb. 27 Minnesota L, 94-83 Mar. 2 Rutgers** L, 75-50 * Gulf Coast Showcase at Estero, Fla. ** Big Ten Tournament at Indianapolis