Penn State women’s basketball suffered yet another grueling loss amid its disheartening season to Washington on Wednesday night. Head coach Carolyn Kieger’s team has gone 2-13 since starting the season off 8-0 in a year riddled with defensive trouble.

While the Lady Lions have shown flashes of brilliance from Moriah Murray’s stellar three-point shooting to Gracie Merkle’s domination in the paint, the team has failed to mesh since its undefeated start.

“Defend. Want to stop the opponent more than they want to score,” Kieger said following the defeat to Washington. “It comes down to toughness. It comes down to grit. And honestly, defense all has to do with heart.”

The Lady Lions have let up 80+ points in five of their last seven games, which all turned out to be losses. Opponents have scored exactly 82 points in three of the last four games as part of the losing streak, highlighting the defensive struggles game in and game out.

Although Penn State snagged 17 steals against the Huskies, Kieger is more focused on the effort displayed by her team through all facets of the game.

“So, very pleased with when we go to be aggressive, where we’re getting the job done. It’s when we’re not, and you can’t be all or nothing in the Big Ten,” Kieger said. “You’ve got to be able to get stops in the full court, and you’ve got to be able to defend in the half.”

Graduate guard Gabby Elliott also weighed in on Penn State’s defensive issues postgame. With the absence of Alli Campbell due to injury and Merkle’s reduced playing time, Elliott played a staggering 39 minutes and led the team in points with 17 in Wednesday’s encounter.

“I think coach touched on our full-court defense as something that’s really good for us right now, just trying to translate that to the half-court and build off stuff like that,” Elliott said.

“It’s all about wanting to, but it’s also about having that tenacity to get in a stance and stop the opponent from what they want,” Kieger said.

The Lady Lions will embark on a two-game road trip starting with Northwestern on Sunday, February 9. Penn State will aim to get right against last-place Northwestern in preparation for the final five games of the season.

After finally completing the gauntlet of ranked opponents, the Lady Lions require some quality wins against Big Ten opponents to end the season on a positive note.