Penn State Sports Magazine
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W O M E N ' S B A S K E T B A L L Hosting then-No. 21 Maryland at the Bryce Jordan Center, the Nittany Lions put together a complete 40 minutes of basketball and claimed, inarguably, their most important win of the season. Led by 25 points and seven rebounds from forward Lamar Stevens and another 14 points and seven boards from Carr, Penn State upset the Terrapins, 70-64. It was an off night for juniors Payton Banks and Shep Garner, as they combined to hit just 1 of 13 field goal attempts and con- tributed to the team's season-low 2-of-18 performance from beyond the 3-point arc. But freshmen Carr, Stevens, Nazeer Bostick and forward Mike Watkins more than compensated, accounting for 76 percent of the team's scoring. Carr saw 33 minutes of action, finishing with three assists and no turnovers, and Chambers said he was impressed with the young point guard's command of the game. Emboldened by his coach's show of faith, Carr improved his defense, hauled in timely rebounds and put together one of the most complete efforts of his young career as a Nittany Lion. Said Chambers, "It wasn't all about scoring, although he made some tough shots for us, made some good plays for us. I can see in hud- dles he was talking more. He was hud- dling the guys up out on the court." Gradually moving to the forefront of the team statistically, Carr was averaging 12.5 points per game with six contests left to play before the Big Ten tournament. Breaking the conference slate into thirds, Carr's 14.2 points per game in the second six led the Nittany Lions, highlighted by 23 points and 14 boards in the team's triple-overtime loss to the Hoosiers. He also averaged a team-high 5.3 assists per game during that same span. Chambers now wants to see more con- sistency from his young leader, on the floor and away from it. That's the next step, he said, and Carr appears ready and willing to embrace the challenge. "I just want to continue to lead by ex- ample," he said. "I just want to step my game up and become one of the hardest workers on the team even more now, just because I'm a 'captain,' I guess. I just want to lead by example and lead the guys with a great attitude and just always have a positive mindset about things." ■ When Penn State traveled to Purdue in early January, it sputtered offen- sively, struggled to come up with re- bounds and left West Lafayette with a 64-51 loss. But when the teams met again Feb. 11 at the Bryce Jordan Cen- ter, the Lady Lions outrebounded the Boilermakers and had four players score in double figures, a list headed by Teniya Page with 24 points. The re- sult was a 79-73 victory and yet an- other affirmation that the team has continued to make progress as the season has gone on. "I think we're just a better team than when we played them a month ago," coach Coquese Washington said. "I think we've grown in a lot of ways. I think we're a little better defensively. I think we're a better rebounding team. And I think our chemistry and connec- tivity are better than they were when we played them [previously]. We've just grown and gotten better as a team." Heading into its visit to Illinois on Feb. 14, PSU was on a roll, with con- secutive victories over Northwestern (74-58), Minnesota ( 77-66) and Pur- due. One of the major factors in Penn State's success is that Page is healthy again. The sophomore guard had been bothered by a hand injury earlier in the season, but she's been coming on strong in recent weeks, leading the team in scoring in six of seven games heading into the trip to Champaign. "When we played [Purdue] earlier, she was just coming back from her hand injury and pretty much played that game with one hand," Washington said. "We were just a little off-kilter. I think we're getting healthy and just getting better overall. We're just a bet- ter team right now and I like the way we're playing heading into the last two weeks of the season." –MATT HERB Page sparks PSU resurgence Trent Buttrick's mind was made up before Patrick Chambers and assis- tant coach Dwayne Anderson even made the offer. The 6-foot-8 forward was coming to Penn State. Although he resides in Naples, Fla., where he attends The Community School, Buttrick is originally from Bloomsburg, Pa., and was already fa- miliar with the Nittany Lion basket- ball program. That familiarity, he said, was what prompted him to quickly make the decision to play his college ball at PSU. "I chose Penn State because of the atmosphere of the campus," Buttrick told BWI via text message. "It's in my home state, not too far from home, and it's been a dream of mine to play here since I was little. The school has phenomenal academics and so many connections. "From a basketball standpoint, Coach Anderson is great and I've built a great relationship with him, and Coach Chambers is awesome and a great coach. [I'm] looking forward to meeting the rest of the staff and players." The Nittany Lions' offer came on the heels of other recent offers from Charlotte and Air Force. Penn State has only one scholarship available in 2017 as the roster currently stands, and now that Buttrick has commit- ted, it's spoken for. The scholarship opened up when 2016 signee Joe Hampton transferred before the start of the 2016-17 season. –N.B. Florida prospect commits to Lions