No. 25 Penn State women’s basketball (7-2) was defeated by West Virginia (8-0) 83-65 Monday as it suffered its second loss of the season on the road. This was the Nittany Lions’ first loss since losing to No. 6 USC almost two weeks ago and first since their appearance in the AP Top-25 poll.

The Lady Lions did not live up to the expectations of their ranking as they committed 26 turnovers and 21 fouls. Shay Ciezki and Makenna Marisa offensively, as Ciezki was limited to zero points through 22 minutes, while Marisa scored just eight points.

How It Happened

After winning the opening tip, Chanaya Pinto scored the first bucket of the game for the Lady Lions on a second-chance layup. West Virginia responded by scoring a driving layup off a Penn State turnover to tie the game.

After that, Ali Brigham and Leilani Kapinus scored back-to-back layups to give Penn State a 6-2 lead. West Virginia scored the first three-pointer of the game, but the Lady Lions got their first three-pointer of the game when Kapinus scored off an assist from Ciezki to make the score 9-5.

After the media timeout, West Virginia picked up the tempo and went on a 8-0 run. In this run, West Virginia forced the Lady Lions to commit four turnovers to manufacture a 13-9 lead.

This run ended when Marisa forced West Virginia’s Tavy Diggs to commit a shooting foul. She was only able to convert one of the two free throws. The foul gave some momentum to the Lady Lions as they went on to score the next five points of the game from a driving layup by Taylor Valladay and three-pointer from Jayla Oden.

West Virginia scored a three-pointer to regain the lead, but Valladay scored the last bucket of the quarter on a three-pointer. The quarter ended with the Lady Lions leading 18-16.

The second quarter began with West Virginia getting the first score of the quarter to tie the game. After that, West Virginia continued its defensive tenacity and went on a 8-2 run. The highlight of the run was a long-range triple as the shot clock expired to give it a 26-22 lead.

The resilient Lady Lions didn’t let this deter them as Pinto knocked two free throws to end West Virginia’s momentum. After West Virginia scored a three-pointer to increase its lead to five, the Lady Lions responded back by scoring the next five points of the game.

After the Lady Lions tied the game, West Virginia started to put it all together offensively and defensively as it forced Penn State to commit several turnovers and fouls. As a result, West Virginia went on a 12-0 run during the last three minutes of the second quarter.

West Virginia capitalized on the Lady Lions’ sloppy play and took a 41-29 lead with 22 seconds left in the quarter. The Lady Lions stopped the bleeding and ended West Virginia’s run before the end of the quarter as Pinto scored an open layup. Penn State trailed by 10 heading into locker room at the break.

Coming out of halftime, the Lady Lions started off aggressively as they scored the first bucket of the quarter on a three-pointer by Valladay to cut the lead to seven. Just when it seemed that the Lady Lions finally found their rhythm, West Virginia didn’t allow Penn State to engineer any momentum as it went on a 7-0 run to increase its lead to 14. The run ended when Ali Brigham scored a jumper in the paint to trim the lead to 12.

West Virginia kept fighting back and responded back by going on another 7-0 run to increase its lead to 16.

Penn State’s attempted comeback started when Marisa found an open Kapinus at the three-point line for a slick triple.

Just as the fourth quarter began, the Lady Lions seemed to have finally found the momentum they desperately needed when Oden scored a driving layup off a fast break, and Valladay scored another layup to trim West Virginia’s lead to seven. After Valladay’s bucket, West Virginia’s JJ Quinerly committed an offensive foul to give the ball back to Penn State.

However, Penn State couldn’t take advantage of the opportunity as Oden committed another turnover.

This critical moment ended Penn State’s momentum, and West Virginia didn’t let its foot off the gas.

Soon after, West Virginia began to put the game out of reach for Penn State as it went on a 10-2 run to increase its lead to 17 with four minutes left in the game. After the media timeout, the Lady Lions did everything they could to pull off the comeback and got a desperately needed bucket when Marisa scored her first three-pointer of the game off an assist from Pinto.

The fourth quarter and game came to a close as the Mountaineers emerged victorious 83-65.

Takeaways

• The story of the game was sloppy play by the Lady Lions. They committed 26 turnovers and allowed West Virginia put 18 steals together.
• The Lady Lions’ top two scorers, Makenna Marisa and Shay Ciezki, struggled mightily in this game. Ciezki committed four fouls and only had four shot attempts. Marisa shot 30% from the field off 10 shot attempts and only scored one three-pointer in the game.
• West Virginia’s ability to capitalize on Penn State’s turnovers played a huge factor in its victory. The Mountaineers scored 31 points off of Lady Lion turnovers compared to Penn State’s 10 points off turnovers.

What’s Next?

The Lady Lions will aim to rebound when they take on No. 12 Ohio State on Sunday, December 10. The game will tip off at 1 p.m. and can be streamed on BTN+.