Blue White Illustrated

W O M E N ' S B A S K E T B A L L P enn State returns four starters and four of its top five scorers from last season, but that doesn't mean that coach Co- quese Washington has a veteran roster at her disposal this season. Nine of the Lady Lions' 14 players will have either fresh- man or sophomore eligibility, and it does- n't sound as though the newcomers will have to wait long to see action. "I expect all nine of those [players] to have roles on this team and to be impact- ful on game day," Washington said. "That could change game-to-game based on matchups and lineups and things of that nature, but I have a lot of confidence in all of our freshmen and sophomores that they can be players for us and they can help us night in and night out." One of the young players who is guar- anteed a major role this season is sopho- more point guard Teniya Page. As a freshman, Page led the Lady Lions in scoring at 15.3 points per game and ranked ninth in the Big Ten in assists with 131 while averaging a team-high 37.6 min- utes per game. This year Washington de- scribes Page as "somebody who can be one of the best point guards in the coun- try with continued growth, with contin- ued development and with continued confidence." Penn State also has three first-year guards in true freshmen Jaida Travascio- Green and Siyeh Frazier, and redshirt freshman Amari Carter. Travascio-Green is a 3-point shooter with the size (6-foot- 2) to see over defenders on the perimeter, while Frazier is a defensive standout. Carter is coming back from a knee injury that forced her to sit out her first season at Penn State. All have a chance to see sig- nificant minutes, Washington said. In addition to Page, the Lady Lions re- turn three starters in senior forwards Peyton Whitted (9.3 points and 8.3 re- bounds per game) and Kaliyah Mitchell (9.5 ppg, 5.2 rpg) and redshirt junior guard Lindsey Spann (13.0 ppg). Also, senior guard Sierra Moore is practicing again after missing last season with a knee in- jury. Moore was the team's second-lead- ing scorer as a sophomore two seasons ago. The Lady Lions are looking to bounce back from a 2015-16 season in which they finished 12-19 and 6-12 in the Big Ten and were eliminated from the conference tournament in the second round with a 70-59 loss to Purdue. Defense has been a priority in the off-season after the team gave up 72.5 points per game last year to rank 12th in the Big Ten. Washington said the team's improved depth will help; all five of last year's starters averaged more than 29 minutes per game. And she's hoping that better decision-making on the offensive end will make for stronger defensive performances, too. "I'm really pleased with where we are in both of those areas right now," Washing- ton said, "but I keep being mindful that we have some room to grow and we want to continue to get better in both of those areas." NOTES For personal reasons, senior guard Keke Sevillian won't join the team until after the fall semester ends, Wash- ington said. … Penn State has a new coach in Tamika Jeter, who replaces Kia Damon and will be working with the post players. Jeter previously coached at Ohio State, Kansas and Kentucky and was a two-time national champion as a player at Con- necticut. Damon is now at Cincinnati. … The Lady Lions' captains this season are Whitted, Mitchell and sophomore guard Sarah McMurtry, who joined the team last season as a walk-on. ■ Infusion of young talent boosts Lady Lions' outlook | adding that the entire team is on the same page, willing to do whatever it takes to win basketball games. On a team that will welcome six new players to the lineup who have never seen a minute of action with the Nit- tany Lions, Garner said the quick accli- mation of the younger players will help lift that level on a program-wide basis. "I think all of them have gotten used to college basketball, the way we practice, the way we work out, the way we play pickup," he said. "We just all are on a different level." Garner explained that for true fresh- men, getting accustomed to college life on a big campus like Penn State's can be overwhelming. The new players have autonomy over their own lives for the first time, and navigating the aca- demic, athletic and social transitions can be a challenge. "It's hard to put that stuff on the back burner when you first get here. But if you really want it, you would do it, and that's what I tell them. And they've been doing a great job at listening and just taking in everything that I say, everything that we do to work hard. That's all I can really ask for," Garner said. "I tell them all the time, all I can really ask for is to go hard. You're going to make mistakes. Everybody knows you're going to make mistakes, but just get out here and give it your best, and that's what they do." That Stevens has been able to go through that acclimation process alongside his high school teammates and a group that has welcomed the newcomers with open arms has been special, he said. "It makes it so much easier knowing you have about 20 other guys you can comfortably talk to about anything, and that you know are going to really have your side," Stevens said. "That's something special that I haven't ever really had in my life. It just makes things way easier. We're such a close group, and having everybody on the same page being comfortable with each other, there's nothing that can really compare to it." ■

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