Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1532761
M A R C H 2 0 2 5 17 W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M FIVE YEARS AGO, 2020 The Penn State men's basketball team was warming up for its Big Ten Tourna- ment opener against Indiana on March 12 when it learned that the event had been canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Nittany Lions were 21-10 overall at the time and had finished sixth in the league's regular-season standings at 11-9, their best showing in Big Ten play since the 2010-11 season. Even if they'd lost to the Hoosiers, they were going to make the NCAA Tournament for the first time in Patrick Chambers' nine seasons as head coach. What's more, senior forward La- mar Stevens was just 7 points away from setting the program's career scoring re- cord. All of those milestones went unrealized when college sports were shut down for the remainder of the athletic year. "Many tears have been shed," Cham- bers said. "We put our heart and soul into it. We've invested so much time and en- ergy and sacrifice, to be able to hear that, to see that, and to get our kids to the se- lection show." Meanwhile, the wrestling team saw its season end after a fourth-place finish at the Big Ten Tournament, while the men's ice hockey campaign ended just before the Nittany Lions were to face Minnesota in the Big Ten Tournament semifinals. PSU finished the hockey season with a 20-10-4 record. 10 YEARS AGO, 2015 After placing sixth at the Big Ten Wres- tling Tournament, Penn State wasn't expected to vie for the team title at the NCAA meet in St. Louis two weeks later. But even in a rebuilding year, there's al- ways an opportunity for individual suc- cess, and senior Matt Brown capitalized. Brown had wrestled for coach Cael Sanderson at Iowa State before putting his career on hold to embark on a two- year Mormon mission. When the Utah native returned to college, he followed Sanderson to Penn State. Brown was one of the top 174-pounders in the country by his senior year and went into his final NCAA Tournament ranked second nationally. He posted major deci- sions in the tourney's first two rounds, then followed with 1-point wins in the quarter- and semifinals. The last of those matches, a 1-0 shutout of Iowa's third- seeded Mike Evans, set up a clash with No. 8 Tyler Wilps of Pitt in the final. Wrestlers from Penn State and Pitt had never met in an NCAA Tournament final. Brown won the closely contested match, 5-4, with the winning point coming on a video review of an interlocking hands call against Wilps in the closing seconds. While that might have seemed like an an- ticlimactic way to end a thrilling battle, a win is a win. "When you're a little kid, you dream of hitting that grand slam in the ninth in- ning," Brown said shortly after claiming his first national title. "And then some- times you hit a bunt." 25 YEARS AGO, 2000 The Penn State women's basketball team had never suffered a losing season in coach Rene Portland's 19 years at the helm, but it had also never been to the Final Four in that span. Then in the spring of 2000, everything changed. At the regional semifinals in Kansas City, point guard Helen Darling fought through a scrum under the basket and hit a layup with 12.6 seconds remaining to lift PSU past Iowa State, 66-65. That gritty win set up a clash with perennial powerhouse Louisiana Tech for a spot in the Final Four, which was to be played in Philadelphia, not far from Portland's hometown of Broomall, Pa. Penn State had dropped six of eight previous games against the Lady Tech- sters, but this time it wasn't going to be denied. Guard Lisa Shepherd scored 25 points on 9-of-14 shooting, and four other Lady Lions reached double figures to help PSU romp to an 86-65 victory. The Lady Lions shot 48.4 percent as a team while holding the top-seeded Lady Techsters to 32.5 percent. "I knew I was due for a good night," Shepherd said. "We just really focused on running our offense and running it all the way through. My teammates set good screens. I was running off them, and I got open shots." The Lady Lions' season came to an end in the national semifinals, with eventual champion Connecticut pull- ing away for an 89-67 victory. Still, it remains the program's greatest season. In addition to reaching the Final Four for the first and only time in team his- tory, Penn State won its third Big Ten regular-season title with a 15-1 record, finished 30-5 overall and placed sixth in the final Associated Press poll. — Matt Herb This Month In Penn State Athletics History Matt Brown edged Pitt's Tyler Wilps for the 174-pound national championship in 2015. PHOTO BY MARK SELDERS/PENN STATE ATHLETICS