Greene Leads Lady Lions to a Big Ten Regular Season Title
The 11th-ranked Penn State Lady Lions (22-5, 12-3 Big Ten) topped the eighth-ranked Ohio State Buckeyes (23-4, 10-4 Big Ten) Monday night at the Bryce Jordan Center in dominating fashion 84-66 to clinch the Big Ten conference’s regular season title.
All five starters for the Lady Lions scored in double figures in the contest, while three of those players recorded double-doubles. One of the Lady Lions that had a double-double against Ohio State was junior forward/center Nikki Greene, who went for a career-high 25 points and a season-high 15 rebounds.
“When you let a player duck in, when you let a player do what she (Greene) wants, it's pretty easy to play a game,” said Ohio State head coach Jim Foster. “We let her do what she wanted. She's a big, strong, athletic kid.”
Along with Greene, sophomore guard Maggie Lucas and redshirt junior forward Mia Nickson also had double-doubles. Lucas finished with 12 points and 10 rebounds, while Nickson added 18 points and 15 boards. Nickson also scored her 500th point as a Lady Lion in the game.
It was the first contest in which three lady Lions recorded double-doubles since Brianne O'Rourke, Julia Trogele and Janessa Wolff did that on November 29, 2008.
Nickson noted that the rebounding was just as important as scoring this season.
“A big emphasis was rebounding this year,” said Nickson, donning her Big Ten conference regular season champions hat and t-shirt in the post-game press conference. “We lost Julia (Trogele) who was a big guard for us. Everybody has stepped up and with that we didn't lose any momentum.”
Also scoring in double figures last night for the Lady Lions were junior guard Alex Bentley — who recorded ten points and four assists — and senior guard Zhaque Gray — who recorded 12 points, five rebounds and five assists.
The Lady Lions dominated on the glass throughout the contest, outrebounding the Buckeyes 60-32. The most impressive stat on the night though may have been in the second chance points column, where Penn State outscored Ohio State 29-0.
“I think the work we did on the board was huge,” said Penn State head coach Coquese Washington. “I also think we were aggressive and they got in foul trouble and we got to the free-throw line a lot.”
Ohio State’s two top scorers coming into the game — junior guard Tayler Hill and senior guard Samantha Prahalis — both went for 16 points and 3 rebounds last night. Also scoring in double figure for the Buckeyes was freshman forward Kalpana Beach, who recorded 12 points and four rebounds.
The Lady Lions final home game against Minnesota was on February 26. Look for coverage here on psucomradio.com.
Matt Trabold is a junior majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, email: mjt5203@psu.edu.
