Penn State women’s basketball (9-6, 0-2 Big Ten) had a late lead against No. 15 Maryland, but it wasn’t meant to be as the Lady Lions fell, 69-65.

The Terrapins (13-2, 2-0 Big Ten) had lost just three games in conference play during their three years in the Big Ten, but the Lady Lions couldn’t become the first conference team other than Ohio State to knock off Maryland during that stretch despite a huge performance from sophomore guard Jaida Travascio-Green.

How It Happened

Maryland started strong to jump out to a nine-point lead before the Lady Lions hit their first field goal, but that’s the one dominant stretch the Terrapins — whose losses have been against No. 1 UConn and No. 4 South Carolina — could muster in the first half.

The Lady Lions were drilling three-pointers — most of which came from the hands of Travascio-Green. Penn State held a 41-40 lead heading into the break, but needed an equally strong second half from its young group to stay with the three-time defending Big Ten champions.

Penn State went into the fourth quarter leading 55-54, thanks to the performance of another sophomore guard — Amari Carter. The redshirt, who is in just her second active season after suffering an ACL tear in 2015, had 13 points prior to limping off midway through the fourth quarter. Valiantly re-entering the game in the waning minutes with the game tied at 63, she drained a mid-range jumper to keep the Lady Lions moving toward the upset.

The Lady Lions achilles heel down the stretch would be rebounding against a larger team. Second-chance points propelled the Terrapins into the lead with less than a minute to go, and after a miss from Penn State’s star guard Teniya Page — who struggled on the day with just nine points off 3-16 shooting — Maryland’s Stephanie Jones scored at the end of the shot clock on her team’s final possession to push the game out of reach.

Player of the Game

Jaida Travascio-Green | Guard | Sophomore

The Lady Lions didn’t grab the upset, but Travascio-Green put them in the position to — finishing with a game-high 21 points and converting five times from behind the arc.

What’s Next

The Lady Lions will have home-court advantage once again when it takes on All-Big Ten first team guard Tyra Buss and the Indiana Hoosiers. Tipoff in the BJC will be 7 p.m. Wednesday on BTN Plus.