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world. Washington said Taylor would "rather shoot the ball than ride the bike," but when one of your teammates is nick- named Machine Gun Maggie and is poised to become the second-leading scorer in school history, well, it's only natural to see yourself as a pass-1rst point guard. So even though Taylor went into Penn State's early-season games and practices with Washington's insistent words ringing in her ears, old habits can be hard to break. "The 1rst month or two of practice, it was still new to me and I was passing up open shots. As soon as I did it, I knew I was gonna be on the bike," Taylor said. "She got me out of it pretty quick with a little bit of punishment. I'm doing better now. I haven't been on the bike in a while." Indeed, Taylor has been scoring more than at any point in her career, and her emergence as a do-it-all point guard has been one of the keys for the Lady Lions as they prepare for the NCAA tournament. They are coming o2 their third consecutive Big Ten regular-season championship, and while they've dropped two of their past three games, including a stunning 99-82 loss to Ohio State in the quarter1- nals of the Big Ten tourney, they will get to regroup on their home court at NCAAs, with 1rst- and second-round tournament games set to take place at the BJC on March 23 and 25. (The brackets had not been announced at press time.) Two-time Big Ten Player of the Year Maggie Lucas has been the focal point, as usual – a gaudy scoring average of 21.4 points per game will do that – but Lucas's three fellow seniors have all played crucial roles, Taylor among them. Her scoring average – 11.7 ppg – is up nearly 1ve points per game from her junior year, and the new focus on point-production didn't detract from the other facets of her game during Penn State's highly successful reg- No one in women's basketball was hitting free throws at a more impressive clip than Maggie Lucas at the end of the regular season. Lucas's 95.9 percent success rate was the highest in Division I, just ahead of Fairleigh Dickinson sophomore Kelsey Cruz (95.8). Heading into the Big Ten tournament, the Penn State senior guard had made 165 of 172 attempts. Lucas attributed her success to a more relaxed approach at the line. "I think that's helped me take it to another level and step that percentage up," she said. "Before I shoot a free throw, I always breathe and relax my shoulders." Lucas had been outstanding from the line all along, hitting 88.7 percent of her attempts in her 2rst three seasons. But going into this season, Penn State assistant coach Fred Chmiel thought there was room for im- provement, so he worked with her to re2ne her approach. "We just tried to cut out the fat a little bit," Chmiel said. "All the margin for error she had within her shot, the rhythm of her shot and the technique of her shot – we just tried to take out the fat, simplify it, and it's helped her out. It's a cleaner shot. There's less room for er- ror, and she's done a great job of perfecting it." Part of that process was to eliminate unnecessary movement. "A lot of shooters do useless stu3 at the free throw line," Chmiel said. "We tried to stream- line her start-up: the dribbles she takes, how her shoulders are angled when she starts her shot, the angle that she 2nishes at. She's got a great shot. We just tried to cut out all the nonsense, all the useless stu3 that she didn't need." That extra work has earned Lucas another mention in the Penn State record books. With her seven makes against Northwestern on Feb. 20, she passed Kahadeejah Herbert into 2rst place on the school's career free throws list. Herbert's record of 512 free throws had stood for 29 years. – M.H. FREE AND EASY A relaxed Lucas shines at line for Lady Lions EIGHT IS ENOUGH Lucas was 8 for 8 from the free throw line in Penn State's Pink Zone victory over Wisconsin. Photo by Bill Zimmerman ular season. She was also -0h in the Big Ten in assists (4.9 per game) and -rst in steals (2.9 per game), with the latter sta- tistic helping her win Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year honors. That's just what Washington wanted to see. "The more balanced Dara can be, the better it makes our team," she said. "We've been at our best this year o/en- sively when we've gotten four or -ve people in double -gures, and that's a direct re.ection of the way that Dara manages the game. Her defense is going to be there night in and night out, but the [priority] for her this year was to be a dual threat on the o/ensive end – to be able to run the team and get her teammates shots while still being able to score. I think over the course of the season, we saw her get more comfortable doing that and more and more e/ective doing it." Taylor's maturation helps explain why the Lady Lions were able to weather a massive off-season personnel overhaul that began with the departure of three graduating starters from the 2012-13 team and continued with the arrival of eight newcomers – seven freshmen and one redshirting transfer. She was able to step into the point guard role that Alex Bentley had filled for four seasons, while two of her classmates – center Talia East and guard/forward Ariel Ed- wards – had their best seasons after be- coming full-time starters. This year's Big Ten title was "probably the hardest of the three championships, because of the change of the team," said Washington, who in early March was named the league's Coach of the Year for the third season in a row. "It was such a new team with seven freshmen, so [the seniors] had a really hard job. The way that they came together, collectively the four of them, to lead this team was really good to see. "It's the -rst time in program history that we have won three Big Ten champi- onships in a row," she added. "This pro- gram has such a storied legacy, so to be able to do something that this program hasn't done before, it's pretty hard. The program has accomplished so much, and for this class and team to do something that sets them apart, that's really cool." She had to squint pretty hard to 3nd a positive takeaway from her team's brief appearance at the Big Ten tournament. And even when she did 3nd it, Penn State coach Coquese Washington didn't sound particularly convinced. "The good thing," she said, "is that we've got a little bit of time o5 to regroup and get ready for the NCAA tournament where we know we're going to play some quality opponents." Well yes, there's that. When the Lady Lions open NCAA play on March 23 at the Bryce Jordan Cen- ter, they will have had 15 days o5, more than a lot of teams in the 3eld. But the reason for that longer- than-expected respite is that they were bounced hard from the quar- ter3nals of the league tourney. Seeded 3rst, Penn State was thrashed by eighth-seeded Ohio State, 99-82, on March 7 in Indi- anapolis. The Buckeyes, who had defeated Northwestern in a 3rst- round game a day earlier, shot 71.9 percent in the 3rst half, including a 10-for-10 performance from 3- point range that allowed them to build a 24-point hal6ime lead that the Lady Lions never came close to overcoming a6er the break. It took Penn State 17 minutes to chop the de3cit down to single-digits, and the Buckeyes responded with an 11-2 run to thwart any hope of a miracle comeback. "I thought they did a good job of getting really good ball movement against the zone and getting open shots, and we didn't adjust quick enough defensively to prevent them from getting open looks," Washington said. "When you play zone, you know you're going to give up 3-point shots. You just want to give up certain 3-point shots. We just didn't rotate quick enough or aggressively enough in the zone to prevent them from get- ting wide-open looks. And they did a really good job of attacking gaps and making the extra pass to get 3- point looks." Penn State had defeated Ohio State twice during the regular sea- son, winning those two games by a combined margin of 44 points. But the Buckeyes came out sizzling in this one, forcing Penn State to abandon its zone late in the 3rst half and leaving players feeling thoroughly 4ustered. "They started bickering a little bit," said Ohio State guard Cait Cra6. "When you get teams argu- ing amongst themselves, that's like another member of your team playing against them." Ariel Edwards led the Lady Lions with a career-high 29 points and 10 rebounds. Maggie Lucas added 21 points, including two 3-pointers that pushed her career total to 358, the most in Big Ten history. But it wasn't nearly enough to stave o5 the Ohio State onslaught, as Cra6 (24 points, six assists) and team- mate Ameryst Alston (33 points, nine assists) kept the Buckeyes comfortably ahead. "They came out and they started the game great," Edwards said. "Our energy was low. We didn't come out the way we needed to, and they took advantage of it." – M.H. Penn State falters in Big Ten quarterfinals

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