Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1495456
A P R I L 2 0 2 3 4 9 W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M A fter finishing its regular season by dropping six consecutive games, five of them by double-digit mar- gins, Penn State seemed likely to have a brief stay at the Big Ten Tournament. The Lady Lions hadn't won a game at the conference tourney since 2018, and as the 13th seed in this year's field, they appeared poised to extend their post- season skid. Instead, though, Penn State showed the kind of fortitude that head coach Carolyn Kieger had been hoping to see all year. In the first round, PSU defeated Minnesota 72-67 in front of a decid- edly pro-Gopher crowd in Minneapo- lis, getting 22 points from senior guard Makenna Marisa. The following day, with two of its top four scorers missing due to injuries, Penn State gave fifth-seeded Michi- gan all it could handle. The Lady Lions battled back from a 9-point deficit in the final two minutes, turning it into a one-possession game on a layup from redshirt sophomore guard Leilani Ka- pinus with 14 seconds left. PSU had a chance to tie or win in the final seconds, but Marisa missed a con- tested two-point shot at the buzzer, and the Wolverines escaped, 63-61. The loss brought an end to Kieger's fourth campaign as head coach, but the team's competitive resilience at the conference tourney lifted her spirits heading into the offseason. "We've been battling all year to be- come the team that we were the past two days," Kieger said. "I'm just happy that they get to know what it feels like to leave it all on the court. We've been try- ing to get to this point where you empty your tank. I think they all understand what it feels like now." The Lady Lions finished 14-17 overall and 4-14 in Big Ten play, their fifth con- secutive losing season. Penn State has now posted a winning record in just one of its past nine seasons. While its overall victory totals have increased each of the past three seasons, its Big Ten wins have declined each year since the 2020-21 campaign, from 6 to 5 to 4. Part of the difficulty for Penn State is that the Big Ten is much stronger than it was even a few years ago. At the con- clusion of the 2022-23 regular season, there were five Big Ten teams in the As- sociated Press Top 25, including three teams in the top 10. Looking ahead to the 2023-24 season, the good news for Penn State is that it returns its three top scorers in Marisa (17.5 points per game), guard Shay Ciezki (11.8) and Kapinus (11.2). Ciezki will be a sophomore, while Kapinus will be a redshirt junior. Marisa's return was uncertain until she confirmed after the loss to Michigan that she plans to take advantage of her bonus year of eligibility. "I have student teaching left to do and another year of basketball," said Marisa, an elementary education major. "We still have work to do to put Penn State on the map." This past season, Marisa was a first- team All-Big Ten selection for the sec- ond year in a row after ranking seventh in the conference in scoring. With 1,785 points, the standout from McMurray, Pa., is 10th in school history in career scoring and is on pace to finish in the Lady Lions' all-time top five. Kapinus, meanwhile, was a member of the Big Ten's All-Defensive team after leading the league in steals with 97. The 5-foot-10 Wisconsin native was also PSU's leading rebounder at 6.7 boards per game. Kieger said she "has the po- tential to be one of the best players in the country." Ciezki missed the Michigan game with an injury she suffered against Minnesota, but her debut season was impressive. Starting all but two of the team's 31 games, she finished as PSU's most accurate three-point shooter at 41.6 percent. The challenge for Penn State now will be to learn from its difficulties and build on the season's last two games. "We knew we didn't play our best basketball the last month and a half, and for us to regroup and come together and play the way that we knew we can shows a lot about our character and what we set out to do," Kieger said. "But we're not pleased. We're not satisfied. We want to be playing in March, and we want to be in the NCAA Tournament." ■ WOMEN'S BASKETBALL All-Big Ten guard Makenna Marisa announced after Penn State's final game that she intends to return for a fifth season. PHOTO COURTESY PENN STATE ATHLETICS Lady Lions Buoyed By Showing At Big Ten Tournament M A T T H E R B | M A T T. H E R B @ O N 3 . C O M