Penn State women’s basketball (12-16, 5-12 Big Ten) lost to Michigan State (19-8, 9-8 Big Ten) at the Breslin Center in East Lansing on Wednesday night.

The Lady Lions had a strong defensive effort but couldn’t get anything going on offense with a 30.5 shooting percentage from the field and 11 turnovers. Lauren Ebo was the only consistent form of offense for Penn State, finishing with a team high 13 points.

How It Happened

The Lady Lions got off to a slow start from the field by shooting 18.2 percent in the first 5:34 of the game. Despite this, they played strong defense and were only down by a score of 6-5 entering the first media timeout of the quarter.

Lauren Ebo led Penn State with three points in the first quarter as the Lady Lions put up a measly six points in the first 10 minutes of play. Still, the Spartans offense wasn’t productive either, and Penn State was only down 10-6 after the first quarter.

Both offenses seemed to wake up a bit in the second quarter. Kamaria Mcdaniel hit Penn State’s first three of the night to tighten things up, while Lauren Ebo continued to lead the Lady Lions in scoring and rebounding. The freshman forward had seven points and eight rebounds with 4:20 to go in the half.

Shay Colley led Michigan State in scoring in the first half with eight points, including a buzzer-beating layup that stretched the Spartan lead to 32-24 at halftime.

Michigan State’s offense came out firing to open up the second half, and the Lady Lions fell behind. Michigan State went on a 9-0 run heading into the first media timeout of the third quarter. It held a lead of 41-29 with 4:02 remaining in the period. Penn State continued to struggle to find any offense while the Spartans scored at will and were led by forward Sidney Cooks, the Lady Lions were down 51-33 heading into the 4th quarter.

The Lady Lions made a push in the fourth quarter to tighten the score up. Amari Carter hit a jump shot with 2:23 left to bring Penn State within nine, but that was as close as the Lady Lions would get. The Spartans held on to win by a score of 57-48.

Takeaways

• It’s hard to win when you don’t make shots, and the Lady Lions proved that tonight. Penn State shot 28.5 percent from the field in the first half, and finished at 30.5 percent. The team also went 2-for-17 from three; it had no chance of keeping up with the Spartans with such poor shooting.
• On the bright side, this was one of the Lady Lions’ better defensive performances of the season. They forced 17 turnovers, but the effort was wasted thanks to a dismal offensive performance.
• Lauren Ebo was by far the best player on the floor for Penn State tonight. The freshman forward had a double-double with 13 points and 11 rebounds. She’ll try to carry that momentum into Saturday’s matchup with Nebraska.

What’s Next

The Lady Lions host Nebraska at 3 p.m. Saturday in the Bryce Jordan Center for their final game of the regular season.