B1G Tourney Game 1: Gophers versus Penn State (1/2/17)

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Ignatius L Hoops

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http://www.collegian.psu.edu/sports...cle_083dd5ca-fe3d-11e6-9ca4-3ffe1f304df1.html


The Lady Lions’ late-season turnaround earned them the No. 7 seed in the tournament and a first-round bye, as they look to get starting forward Jaida Travascio-Green healthy after she suffered an ankle injury in practice last week.

“She’s still day-to-day,” Washington said. “The ankle’s still healing, so we probably won’t know until Wednesday or Thursday. I’m optimistic though that she’ll be able to play.”

The Lady Lions will open up their Big Ten tournament on March 2 against tenth-seeded Minnesota, which also received a first-round bye. The Lady Lions can draw on previous success against the Golden Gophers, as they beat Minnesota 77-66 in their last contest on Feb. 8...


...It’s been three years since the Lady Lions finished their conference tournament with a showing good enough to earn them a selection for the NCAA tournament. Since, then they’ve lacked the talent necessary to garner the committee’s attention.

The last time Penn State made the big dance, former Lady Lion star Maggie Lucas led them there. Lucas was the last first team All-Big Ten Lady Lion, until Teniya Page earned the selection this season, perhaps an omen for things to come for the program.

“I think when you have good players, good things happen,” Washington said.

Washington said one of the things Page has in common with dynamic guards of Penn State’s past, like Lucas, is that she’s fueled by a competitive fire, an intangible the coach believes separates Page from the rest of the pack.
 

http://m.startribune.com/marlene-st...development/415170344/?section=sports/gophers


When she heard coach Marlene Stollings wanted all of the freshmen to report to her office, Taiye Bello assumed the worst.

“The first thing we thought was, ‘Are we in trouble?’ ’’ the Gophers rookie forward said. “But when she told us we were going to be captains, we were all really surprised.’’

Stollings unveiled a novel experiment that day: naming all four Gophers freshmen as captains for the month of February. It worked so well that she’s extending it into the Big Ten tournament, which begins Thursday for the Gophers as they play Penn State in the second round...



...Making her freshmen temporary captains is a new twist for Stollings. Junior Carlie Wagner remains the permanent captain, but with three rookies playing vital roles, the coach saw an opportunity to fast-track their leadership skills and make them feel more invested in the team.

Brunson, Hubbard and twins Taiye and Kehinde Bello are expected to lead discussion in huddles and maintain a positive, encouraging tone throughout practices and games. At the end of each workout, one of them must choose two players and tell them two things they did well, then choose two others and mention two things they could improve upon. Being leaders also has forced them to think things through in games, Stollings said, rather than being fed information all the time.

Before Stollings went ahead with the idea, she ran it by Wagner and other upperclassmen. They were on board. Their teammates’ support has been invaluable to helping them learn how and when to assert themselves, the freshmen said.

“They encourage us when we’re too quiet, telling us to get the gym going,’’ said Hubbard, who has scored in double digits in 11 of 21 games. “I’ve never been a talkative person, but this is forcing me to talk and communicate and cheer on my teammates. And it’s actually easier than I thought it would be, because our teammates make it easy.’’
 

Gophers led 26-17 after 1 and 33-29 at halftime and now down to 46-45 after 3.
 




The zebras are guessing now. Big last 2 minutes from Gophers. Fouling on the 3? Brutal. At least they get 1 W but too bad they get MD next.
 

Went up 61-51 with 4:50 left and then started playing not to lose and gave up an 8-0 run but Gophers survive 70-64.

Page had a career high 35.
 


...Making her freshmen temporary captains is a new twist for Stollings.
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Great idea! Put freshmen in charge of a sinking ship
 



Good effort by the ladies versus PSU. I applaud Stollings' use of Kaposi instead of Hedstrom. Found it a bit curious that Fernstrom had a solid first half and then Stollings mostly went with Edwards in the second half. Not a great game for T. Bello. She'll have to chalk that up to experience.
 

Ten players played and all played at least 10 minutes. I didn't realize Hubbard played 31 minutes. Gophers came out aggressively in the first and scored 26. They finished strong in the fourth with 24.

Minutes Played with Starters in Bold:

38 Bell
38 Wagner
31 Hubbard
19 Tinjum
15 Fernstrom
14 T Bello
12 Brunson
12 Hedstrom
10 Edwards
10 Kaposi
 

What do you think? One more win, they're in the WNIT? Two more and they're in the NCAAs.
 

Shades said:
What do you think? One more win, they're in the WNIT? Two more and they're in the NCAAs.
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One more win probably gets them into the WNIT but pretty sure they'll need three wins to get into the NCAAs.
 



thatjanelpick said:
One more win probably gets them into the WNIT but pretty sure they'll need three wins to get into the NCAAs.
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Sorry, three is what I meant. They need to win the conference championship to get to the NCAA's.
 

THE MODERATOR: We're joined by Minnesota.
Coach Stollings, we'll ask you to make an opening
statement then we'll go to questions for the students.
COACH STOLLINGS: We have a lot of people in here
because it's their first time at the Big Ten Tournament,
so we wanted them to see what this is like. I'll say it's
-- really proud of this team for how they battled the
entire time and a pretty physical game. I thought we
handled the physicality very well.
A very talented Penn State team on a great run, great
momentum coming into the tournament. Most proud of
us forcing 18 turnovers and what we did with those
turnovers. We're coming off a game at Maryland
where we forced 21 but we didn't do anything on the
offensive end of the ball. Tonight with those 18
turnovers we scored 23 points which is a huge key in
the game.
THE MODERATOR: Questions for the students.
Q. Carlie, in the fourth quarter you guys held Penn
State without a field goal for about just five
minutes roughly. Defensively what was especially
working in that stretch for you guys?
CARLIE WAGNER: We just knew we had to sit down
and play defense and stop dribble penetration down
the middle because that's what was really hurting us. I
thought we did a lot better job the fourth quarter,
coming out and sitting down and playing defense, not
letting them get to the basket so easy.
Q. Carlie, you've been here and what did you try to
tell some of your teammates about this atmosphere
and this stage?
CARLIE WAGNER: There's nothing like it. This is
March Madness now. This is so much fun. This is
what we work for all year. And to be here is just so
exciting. It's amazing. It's an experience that you'll
never forget.
Q. Kenisha, in the fourth quarter and the first
quarter your offense was really good. What stands
out when you guys were clicking offensively,
because in that second quarter there you kind of
stagnated a little bit?
KENISHA BELL: I think moving the ball with pace
helped us a lot because at first we kind of were playing
casual, going through the offensive sets, without being
a threat. And then the fourth quarter we just talked
about that and had to pick up the intensity.
Q. I don't see you guys play, but after the halftime
you guys came out with five or six minutes to go
and had about five or six players shooting up shots
in a hurry. Is that normal or something special you
wanted to do today?
COACH STOLLINGS: It's not special. We always try to
get out from halftime and get a lot of shots out. But we
came out a couple minutes early because we haven't
been on this court or we had not been on this court
prior to the game pretty much. So you know we want
our shooters to get out there and be able to see the
basket and to be able to get on that end because we
had not been on that end of the floor at all.
Q. Page with them obviously had 35. You really
held everything else in check. Were you somewhat
content to some degree with her getting points but
holding everyone else in check?
COACH STOLLINGS: She's a special player. And she
hit some tough shots. But then she also got away from
us some. So we mixed up into a box and one to try to
cool her off a little bit. But she's a phenomenal player
and had a great game for them. But what we did very
well was not let another player, as you alluded to, go off
on us. So it's hard to get beat by one player. And I
thought we did a good job containing the rest of their
team.
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http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools...stgame_quotes/postgame_quotes_20170303aaa.pdf
 




Ohio State barely felt the bump that was Northwestern putting away the Wildcats, 99-66.

The second game turned into a instate dog fight with Purdue recovering from a 39-24 half time deficit to defeat the Hoosiers 66-60. It took most of the second half for the Boilers to grab the lead. Morrissette scored 21 and Oden 24.
 

Ignatius L Hoops said:
Ohio State barely felt the bump that was Northwestern putting away the Wildcats, 99-66.

The second game turned into a instate dog fight with Purdue recovering from a 39-24 half time deficit to defeat the Hoosiers 66-60. It took most of the second half for the Boilers to grab the lead. Morrissette scored 21 and Oden 24.
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Did you mean for this comment to be in the "B1G Tourney" thread instead of here? Anyway, Indiana's inability to hit wide-open layups made me feel slightly better about the Gophers' similar malady. And I enjoyed seeing the refs elect not to reward Buss' attempts to get fouuled.
 

thatjanelpick said:
Did you mean for this comment to be in the "B1G Tourney" thread instead of here? Anyway, Indiana's inability to hit wide-open layups made me feel slightly better about the Gophers' similar malady. And I enjoyed seeing the refs elect not to reward Buss' attempts to get fouuled.
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Yep, I stuck it in the wrong thread. And yes I enjoyed referees ignoring Buss attempting to draw a foul by intentionally jumping into defenders. Morrissette is fun to watch when she gets focused.
 

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