Blue White Illustrated

Questions abound despite victory at Southern Scue I t may, or may not, have been the rotis- serie chicken. In between matches, with some 10 pounds to give before be- ginning to push his weight limit, Penn State junior Shakur Rasheed scarfed down some barbecue as he recharged his body for the next opponent. It was a luxury that hadn't been afforded to him in previous seasons, when he had to cut some 20 pounds as a freshman in order to make 165 and then 10 as a sophomore when he wrestled at 174. Now up two weight classes at 197 – filled out, still quick-footed and even more confident – Rasheed isn't just en- joying a nice meal during competition. He's also showing that he's the best wrestler there. At the Southern Scuffle, one of the most prestigious tournaments of the regular season, he did just that. With three of his five victories coming by way of fall in under one minute, he won his bracket and earned the most outstanding wrestler award at the tournament. W R E S T L I N G BY TIM OWEN owen.tim.bwi@gmail.com RASHEED As Lions sort out lineup, Ohio State emerges as NCAA tourney favorite Amari Carter and Jaida Travascio- Green combined to score 41 points, and Penn State got a much-needed road win, surging past Wisconsin, 69-62, on Jan. 14 at the Kohl Center. Carter scored 21 points and Travas- cio-Green had 20, marking the 7rst time since January 2017 that two Lady Lions scored 20 or more points in the same game. Penn State prevailed over the Badgers, who remained winless in Big Ten play, despite attempting only six free throws (and making three). The victory was only Penn State's second in seven games, as it dropped its nonconference 7nale in overtime at American, then lost four of its 7rst 7ve Big Ten games. Perhaps the most disheartening of those defeats was a 91-71 home loss to Minnesota on Jan. 10. The Gophers hit 7 of 9 3-point attempts in building a 48-31 hal8ime lead. Penn State bounced back in Madison, earning its 7rst Big Ten road victory of the season. The Lady Lions led for most of the a8ernoon, but Wisconsin's Suzanne Gilreath hit a 3-pointer to tie the score, 52-52, with 7 minutes, 20 seconds to play in the fourth quarter. Penn State responded by scoring 10 in a row, and the Badgers weren't able to get any closer than seven points the rest of the way. The win improved Penn State's record to 11-8 overall and 2-4 in the Big Ten heading into a two-game homestand vs. Rutgers and Illinois. –MATT HERB WOMEN'S BASKETBALL PSU ends skid with win vs. Wisconsin and getting on a run. I really believe that," he said. "I believe we're this close, and I think a little winning streak here would really help this program out. It really would. But we've got to stay the course." The Lions are still a young team, and they don't have a history of success to draw upon, so Chambers has focused on maintaining a consistent message. Players have done their part by trying not to dwell on losses. "Every loss hurts our team. It hurts anybody. If you're a competitor, it's going to bother you," sophomore for- ward Lamar Stevens said. "We woke up the next day [after a loss] and got right back to work. You have to have a short memory when you're playing this game, and that's something our team is really developing. We got back to work the next day and worked even harder." Making matters more challenging, the team has slogged through a series of distractions away from the court. Mike Watkins, Tony Carr and Nazeer Bostick all served one-game suspensions for unspecified reasons before the start of the new year. And moments before its game at Indiana, Penn State announced that junior guard Josh Reaves would not play because he needed to resolve aca- demic issues. Reaves also missed the Nebraska game. An official statement issued prior to the latter game stated that the team "hopes to have him back on the court soon." Chambers has responded by empha- sizing the factors that he can control. He said he wants to keep the Nittany Lions focused on the path rather than the destination. "Today is the most important day. If we're blessed enough to get up tomor- row, tomorrow will be the next impor- tant day," he said. "We can't keep focusing on March. We can't do that. We've got to get better right now." This Penn State team is talented, he said, "but they still have to learn how to compete every possession for 40 min- utes. Against Northwestern, we did it. [At Indiana], we probably did it for 20, and that's not good enough on the road. It's our job as a staff, my job as the head coach and leader, to make sure that we get there." ■

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