Game Grades: Penn State Women’s Basketball vs. Virginia
An early struggle in the opening half led to the Lady Lions to lose their first game of the season and the first game of the ACC/Big Ten Challenge.
Let’s take a look at the grades from the game:
Offense: C+
Penn State’s offense was close to non-existent in the first quarter, only putting seven points on the scoreboard off of 15 shots taken. This is now the fourth time this season that the Lady Lions were outscored in the opening quarter.
After the slow start, the offense finally clicked and scored 20+ points in the three remaining quarters. Makenna Marisa and Shay Ciezki were big contributors to that, each ending the game with double digit points scored.
If the first quarter was taken out of the statistical sheets then this would've been one of the top performances from this Lady Lion squad this season.
The Lady Lions had a pretty good day from the 3-point range, shooting for 39% on 29 shots.
Defense: D
The blue and white had no answers against the Virginia offense, giving up more than 20 points a quarter and 89 points at the end of the game. Virginia’s offense dominated underneath the net, putting up 42 points in the paint and getting 29 points off of offensive rebounds.
The Lady Lions and head coach Carolyn Kieger are known for backcourt pressing against teams for the majority of the game. This time, it didn’t work as they got beat on fast breaks consistently, letting up 18 points off of fast breaks.
The defense allowed Virginia to pass all over them, opening lanes in the paint and allowing the Cavaliers to end with 24 assists.
Coaching: B-
Letting the other team score 89 at home and having no answers on defense for it throughout four quarters of play is not a good look for this coaching staff. Especially when your team gets off to a slow start on offense, they need to plan to make a stand at some point to fight back into the game.
The team had no answers for Mir McLean who ended the game with 24 points and 13 rebounds. Kieger was able to adjust on offense and get them going to put up 68 points by the end of the game but not being able to make a stand on defense was what allowed this game to get out of hand.
Penn State will fall to 7-1 but the great start to the season is the fourth-best start in program history. The blue and white they will travel for the first time this season and head over to Minneapolis to take on the Minnesota Gophers on Saturday at 8:30 p.m.
Micheal Bolger is a second-year majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, please email mpb6233@psu.edu.
