Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/260491
extricably linked to Lucas this year, as the team has relied on her to help it overcome its heavy graduation losses and compete for its third consecutive Big Ten champi- onship even with six freshmen on the active roster. The team's radical makeover has had an impact on Lucas's game; her shooting percentages – 39 percent from the floor and 34 percent from 3-point range – are the lowest of her career. But without a cast of experienced veterans to draw away defenders, that was to be ex- pected. "She's getting a little bit of increased at- tention," coach Coquese Washington said. "But she's gotten attention every year since she's been here. This team plays a lot dif- ferent than the other three teams she's played on. It's a little bit different, so the looks she gets are a little bit different." Even with all the upheaval, Lucas has been pacing Penn State. In the Lady Lions' victory over Ohio State, she scored 23 points on 9-of-14 shooting. Her 12-point outburst keyed a 21-3 run early in the sec- ond half that gave Penn State a command- ing lead. "She's a great player," Buckeyes coach Kevin McDuff said. "She's one of the best scoring guards in the country. Defensively, we were doing a lot of good things, but she would kind of bail them out with a spectacular play. That's what makes her special, and it's part of what makes them a great team." Lucas began the season ranked seventh on Penn State's all-time scoring list, but she's zoomed past five players since the start of her senior year. She scored 23 points in a 75-72 victory over Purdue on Jan. 30, passing Susan Robinson into sec- ond place on Penn State's all-time scoring list. Heading into the Lady Lions' visit to Indiana on Feb. 13, Lucas had 2,322 career points. Only one player ranks ahead of her on Penn State's list: Kelly Mazzante, who starred for the Lady Lions from 2001- 04. Lucas isn't going to catch the three- time All-American. Mazzante finished with 2,919 points, the most by any player in Big Ten history, female or male. Lucas remembers seeing Mazzante in action years ago. Whenever a big-time player happened to be passing through the Philadelphia area, her father would take her to the game, and one of those games was a visit by Penn State to St. Joseph's in the early 2000s. Lucas, who as of this writing had moved up to fifth place on the Big Ten's all-time scoring list, looks at Mazzante's career numbers with a kind of awe. "That's an incredible amount of scoring," she said. "That says a lot about her as a player to be able to score that much throughout her whole career. I've seen her stats and how they improved, and it's pretty in- credible." Lucas's numbers are pretty remarkable in their own right, but she's not thinking about embellishing her statistical resume. "Right now, it doesn't mean that much to me," she said. "Our focus is on getting wins." ■