Makenna Marisa was playing some of her best basketball of the season in Penn State women’s basketball’s 74-66 WBIT win over Belmont. Marisa, playing in her second-to-last game ever in the Bryce Jordan Center, dropped 18 points, three assists, and two steals in Penn State’s second tournament win in four days.

Her performance on the court was rivaled only by that of her teammate, guard Ashley Owusu, a transfer from Virginia Tech playing in her fifth season of collegiate basketball.

There was a key gap separating one of Penn State’s best players of all time and one of its best players on the current roster: postseason experience.

Owusu, unlike Marisa, has played postseason basketball past a conference tournament. Owusu played in two Sweet Sixteens with Maryland, and while riding the bench due to injury, watched Virginia Tech reach last year’s Final Four.

That experience, her teammate and coach said, has helped propel Penn State through the WBIT as it sits just three wins from taking home a trophy.

“Ash has taught me so much. I’ve always been a fan of her game,” Marisa said postgame. “She uses her voice, too, and when she does, she knows a lot. She has a very high IQ, and she’s helped my game, and she’s helped a lot of the team with our game as well.”

In a team built on the transfer portal, Owusu has been the crowning gem of Carolyn Kieger’s time as Penn State’s head coach. Kieger has lost some notable players to the portal, but Owusu’s signing with the Lady Lions was revolutionary.

Owusu performed well for the Lady Lions as soon as she returned from injury. She missed the start of the season but eventually appeared off the bench in a win over Rutgers. Since then, she’s played in 16 games and averaged 17.7 points, 3.8 assists, and 5.8 rebounds per game. In the WBIT, she’s dropped a combined 36 points, six assists, and nine rebounds across two games.

“I just think her composure, she slows the game down, obviously understands when to take over,” Kieger said of what Owusu provided. “I thought she did a really good job tonight… She’s showing the last 10 games how consistent she’s been.”

The mentality Owusu has provided during the WBIT has been reflective of her tournament experience. She repeated her mentality of “win or go home” after the George Mason game and has come alive when her team needed it in the second halves of both games in the WBIT.

In a few days, the Lady Lions will face their toughest postseason test yet in Mississippi State, the only seeded WBIT team Penn State’s faced in the tournament. Still, it won’t have been the toughest postseason test Owusu’s faced. The likes of Stanford and Texas have already prepared her for the challenges ahead.