Penn State women’s basketball (7-0) defeated Georgia (4-3) 67-47 in the Lady Lions final appearance at the WBCA Tournament on Saturday.

Moriah Murray went 7-for-14 from beyond the arc en route to 24 points, while Gracie Merkle and Alli Campbell 26 points.

How It Happened

Georgia won the first possession, but Penn State scored first with a Murray three-pointer on its second possession. De’mauri Flournoy responded with three points of her own before Merkle hit a layup.

Fatima Diakhate and Trinity Turner dropped five points before Tamera Johnson hit her jump shot before the game went into a media timeout.

Johnson hit a free throw out of the break, but Turner hit a three soon after to make it 11-10. Gabby Elliott gave Penn State two points and, after a few possessions with no scores, Turner hit another three-pointer to tie the game with a minute left in the first quarter.

Turner dropped two more points, totaling 10 of Georgia’s 15 points, before the first quarter ended with the Bulldogs leading 15-13.

After nearly two minutes without a score, Campbell and Merkle combined for four points. Campbell made a layup and jumper four minutes into the second quarter, giving Penn State a 21-15 lead before Georgia called timeout.

Roxane Makolo opened up the scoring after the break with a jumper, but Grace Hall responded with the same.

Both teams suffered scoring droughts of more than three minutes after those points before Asia Avinger hit a free throw and Miyah Verse hit a jump shot. With 34 seconds left in the game, Amiya Evans dropped in a layup.

Merkle responded with a layup, but Turner hit a three-pointer just before the buzzer to close the half with the teams tied 25-25.

Avinger scored the first points out of the break but failed to convert on the three-point play. Diakhate and Elliott traded points in the paint, but Elliott converted on her three-point play. Murray gave Penn State its lead back with a three-point play and Campbell tacked on a layup as Georiga called timeout down 33-29.

Murray’s three-pointer was the first points out of the break before Verse hit a layup and free throw. Campbell hit a jump shot before Verse hit went 1-for-2 at the charity stripe.

After a media timeout, Campbell gave the Lady Lions two points and Evans followed that by going 1-for-2 at the line. With just over two minutes left in the third quarter, Jayla Oden hit a free throw to make the score 41-32 for the Lady Lions.

Campbell hit a jumper a few seconds later. After a long break, Summer Davis and Elliott traded points, but nobody could score for the remainder of the third quarter, with Penn State leading 45-34 going into the last 10 minutes.

Davis started the fourth quarter with a jumper after a steal from Turner, but Merkle answered with a layup. Turner made her own jump shot before Murray hit a three-ball on a fast break. Murray hit another three a moment later as Penn State began to run up the score, leading 53-38.

After a Georgia timeout, Murray hit two three-pointers and Merkle earned two points in the paint. Oden scored two more points before Flournoy hit a layup of her own. Hall and Merkle added four more points before Flournoy converted on her three-ball. After Asia scored two more points, Penn State let the clock die en route to its 67-47 win.

Takeaways

• Georgia was the first team Penn State played with a record better than .500. While the Lady Lions didn’t always look their best and were in a dogfight until late in the third quarter, they did a good job of limited the Lady Bulldogs’ offense. Georgia averaged 69.7 points per game before playing Penn State, but only registered 47 on Saturday.
• What more can be said of Murray this year? While the three-point sniper didn’t get truly warm until the fourth quarter, she still dropped a team-high 24 points while making 50% of her three-point field goal attempts.

What’s Next?

Penn State will return to the Bryce Jordan Center to face Murray’s former team, Drexel. The game will tip off at 1 p.m. on Wednesday, November 27, on BTN+.