Game Grades: Women’s Basketball vs. Nebraska
After starting the season 7-0, Penn State has now dropped six of its last 10 games following a 29-point defeat against Nebraska on Wednesday afternoon.
The Lady Lions started off slow, trailing the Cornhuskers 21-10 after the first quarter, and never got back into it as the 80-51 defeat was the largest loss of their season.
Offense: D
It’s hard to win when shots aren’t falling, and for the Lady Lions on Wednesday afternoon the shots were not falling.
It looked at times as if there was a lid on the bucket as Penn State shot 28.6% from the field on 18-for-63 shooting. A heavy reliance on 3-point attempts worsened the shooting woes as the Lady Lions took 21 shots from beyond the arc and converted on five of them.
Makenna Marisa led the way with 14 points, but getting there wasn’t easy as she shot 5-for-19 from the field and 1-for-8 from downtown. Marisa was joined by Shay Ciezki and Taniyah Thompson with double-digit points as those two were able to have a little bit more success while shooting. Ciezki and Thompson both went 4-for-9 from the field while combining to go 3-for-7 from three-point range.
The three leading scorers for the Lady Lions also combined for eight of the team’s 19 total turnovers as the Cornhuskers had no problems taking possession away from Penn State.
Defense: C-
Despite 19 turnovers on the offensive end, the Lady Lions were able to win the turnover battle as they forced Nebraska to hand over possession 22 times.
But outside of the turnover battle, the defensive presence of Penn State did not appear to be present. The Cornhuskers shot the opposite of their oppoent as they shot 30-for-67 from the field and 13-for-28 from beyond the arc.
The 46.4% shooting clip from downtown was above the 32.3% clip that Penn State has allowed to opponents this season. The final three was the cherry on top for the Cornhuskers as Kendall Moriarty put up a one-handed half court heave as time expired in the fourth quarter.
Callin Hake led the way with 16 points in 18 minutes off of the bench as Nebraska had five different players hit double-digit points. Hake along with four-of-five Nebraska starters outscored Penn State 61-51.
Coaching: C-
It wouldn’t be fair to blame the coaching for a rough shooting night, but there was much more than just the shooting that went wrong for Penn State.
The Lady Lions had the ability to chip away at the lead, but a heavy emphasis from beyond the arc hurt the chance of the comeback.
For coach Carolyn Kieger, the struggles as of late, including a 2-4 record in Big Ten play, will need to be ironed out as Penn State faces No. 12 Iowa on the road on Saturday.
Justin Ciavolella is a second-year majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, email jtc5751@psu.edu.
