Penn State women’s basketball (7-5, 0-1 Big Ten) was defeated by Richmond (11-3, 1-0 A10) 70-54 on Sunday afternoon to close out the Lady Lions’ showing in the 4 Tha Culture Holiday Hoops Classic.

The game rounds out Penn State’s non-conference schedule, finishing with a 7-4 record in those games.

How It Happened

Gracie Merkle won the opening tip to get things started. A turnover by Penn State led to a second-chance layup by Maggie Doogan for the first points of the game.

After a shot-clock violation, the Spiders scored their second layup of the game to make it 4-0. Kiyomi McMiller responded with a made jumper to get the Lady Lions on the board.

McMiller committed a shooting foul to give Doogan the first free throws of the game. Following a miss and a make, McMiller made the game 5-4 with a layup. Doogan hit the game’s first 3-pointer on the ensuing possession.

A Shayla Smith layup after a Shaelyn Steele steal made it 8-6. The two teams would continue to exchange buckets, with Richmond hitting a buzzer-beater layup to finish the first quarter up 19-14.

A turnaround jumper by Doogan opened up scoring for the second quarter. The Lady Lions’ first 3 of the game was made by Viktoria Ranisavljevic off a Richmond turnover. Three-pointers by Tèa Clèante and Maggie Mendelson would cut the Richmond lead to five.

A couple more Doogan layups highlighted the rest of the second quarter, and the Lady Lions went into halftime, down 36-25.

A three-point shot by Rachel Ullstrom kicked off the second half scoring. Clèante got the second half started for the Lady Lions with a layup on a fast break, making it 39-27.

Ullstrom hit another three to give the Spiders their biggest lead of the game at 15. Ranisavljevic responded with a layup. Doogan hit a layup and got the foul call; the free throw was good for her 22nd point.

After another Richmond layup gave the Spiders a 20-point lead, 3-pointers by Vitória Santana and Mendelson cut the margin to 14. Layups by Clèante and Merkle followed these before Ally Sweeney cut the run short with a 3 of her own to end the third quarter.

Two layups, one of them being a 3-point play, gave Sweeney 18 points and Richmond a 61-43 lead. The Lady Lions answered with layups by Clèante and two by Merkle.

After long scoring droughts by both teams, Richmond made a layup and a 3-point jumper to put the game away. Richmond takes this one 70-54.

Takeaways

• Penn State simply couldn’t stop Maggie Doogan, who finished with 30 points.
• Turnovers really hurt the Lady Lions; 21 of them led to 26 points for the Spiders.
• Penn State never had a lead in this one; Richmond led for 39:28.

What’s Next?

The Lady Lions will next take on Iowa on the road on Sunday, December 28. Tip-off is scheduled for 4 p.m., with the game broadcast on the Big Ten Network.