Page Notches 2000th Career Point, but Falls to 13th-Ranked Iowa

Story posted February 4, 2019 in CommRadio, Sports by Will Kofron

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa – The Lady Lions faced off against the Iowa Hawkeyes Sunday evening in the Bryce Jordan Center. The No. 13 Iowa Hawkeyes prevailed over the Lady Lion, 81-61.

Unranked Penn State now holds a losing record at 10-11. Despite the loss, Penn State still holds a winning 29-21 all time record against Iowa.

The big takeaway for Penn State after this game is that Teniya Page has officially become the sixth Lady Lion to eclipse the 2000 career-point threshold. While it may be in a loss, it is still historic individual accomplishment, and Page is now only four assists away from being the only Lady Lion to ever have 2000 career points in addition to at least 400 rebounds and 400 assists.

The first quarter was quite competitive. Although the Lady Lions never led, the team only trailed 24-22 at the end of the first quarter and did a great job of generating turnovers and turning it into easy offense.

After the first quarter, Iowa took over and dominated the game. Senior forward Megan Gustafson is the nation’s leading scorer for a reason and she demonstrated that with 20 points in the first half.

Penn State could not adjust to the Hawkeyes zone defense. Stagnant movement caused turnovers for Penn State and easy transition points for Iowa. The disciplined Iowa defense held Penn State to only shooting 33.8 percent from the field and the game quickly became out of reach for the Lady Lions.

The Lady Lions had no answer for the Iowa offense. Despite using both man-to-man and zone defenses, the Hawkeyes shot 53.1 percent from the field and Gustafson finished with 30 points, 11 rebounds five assists in addition to three blocks in what was a truly spectacular performance.

When asked about her historic achievement of 2000 career points, Taniya Page displayed her unselfish nature and how the Lady Lions felt about the loss by simply saying, “I guess it’s cool.”

The Lady Lions look to bounce back from its current two game losing streak Wednesday on the road against Ohio State to play against the Buckeyes.

 

 

Will Kofron is a freshman majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, email BillKofron1@gmail.com.