Penn State Loses OT Thriller

posted January 18, 2019 in CommRadio by CommRadio, David Saggio

The Penn State Lady Lions (9-7) hosted the Ohio State Buckeyes (6-8) at the Bryce Jordan Center for a clash between two of the bottom teams in the Big Ten.

Ohio State sprung to an early lead with an immediate 3-point field goal right after winning the tip-off. However, the Lady Lions answered quickly with a Siyeh Frazier pullup mid-range jumper followed by a Karisma Ortiz three. The rest of the first quarter would prove to be very back and forth with Ohio State only taking a 20-18 lead into the second.

The Buckeyes would push their lead early on in the second quarter opening things up with a 5-0 scoring run. Starting in the first and into the second the Buckeyes dominated the paint, both offensively and defensively.

The Lady Lions guards, however, really came to life in the second quarter splashing shots from deep three-point range and utilizing effective dribble moves to gain separation for deadly mid-range jumpers. Karisma Ortiz was on fire in the first half, going 4-of-4 from the field including 3-of-3 from 3-point land.

Meanwhile, Ohio State guard Janai Crooms had herself an effective first half for the Buckeyes, leading the way for them with 13 points on 5-of-6 shooting from the field with one 3-pointer.

At halftime the Buckeyes found themselves leading the Lady Lions 37-35. Lady Lions guard Teniya Page struggled heavily scoring only four points and going 1-of-7 from the field in the first half.

Janai Crooms kicked off the scoring in the second half with a smooth transition layup followed by another easy drive and layup right down the middle of the lane. Lady Lion coach Coquese Washington was not happy with the sloppy play and lazy defense to open the second half and immediately called timeout after Crooms second score.

Coming out of the timeout Teniya Page continued to struggle, missing another jumper which was immediately capitalized on by Ohio State with another outlet pass for a Crooms layup. A huge Siyeh Frazier and one layup brought the Lady Lions back into the game, sparking a 22-5 run that they carried into the fourth.

Teniya Page was able to get it going from the field splashing home two deep 3-pointers to push the Lady Lions lead to 15 early on in the fourth. After an Ohio State timeout Teniya Page nailed another three, seemingly forgetting about her shooting woes and once again finding her touch.

Ohio State started to rally late with two straight 3-pointers coming from Carmen Grande and Makayla Waterman. This sparked a monstrous 15-0 run from the Buckeyes, Siyeh Frazier had a huge put-back late but Buckeye center Dorka Juhász splashed her second straight three to cut the lead 67-65 Lady Lions. After a review to determine possession Janai Crooms hit the tying layup to make it 67-67 with 15 seconds left.

After a missed game-winning drive by Page, the game went to overtime as they tied 67-67 at the end of regulation. Teniya Page opened up the scoring in overtime with a pull up mid-range that found nothing but net.

Poor play from both sides would lead to two minutes of no scoring until Buckeye guard Carly Santoro nailed a huge three, tying it 70-70 with a minute left in overtime. Following a Lady Lion miss, Janai Crooms hit the go-ahead layup to put Ohio State up two.

Teniya Page tried to answer and tie it up with a drive of her own but was fouled and proceeded to make one of two shots from the line. Dorka Juhász came up huge for the Buckeyes again nailing one layup off the inbound and then making two of her three free throws to ice the game.

Ohio State would go on to win 76-71 with Janai Crooms scoring 27 points and Dorka Juhász coming up huge in crunch time.

The Lady Lions travel to College Park on Sunday where they will take on the ninth ranked Maryland Terrapins.

David Saggio is a freshman majoring in Broadcast Journalism, to contact him email davesag12@gmail.com.