Lady Lions hang on to beat Badgers

By Josh Daeche
Collegian Staff Writer

Different location, but just like last weekend, the Penn State women's basketball team defeated Wisconsin in a battle, 57-52.

After going into halftime up 31-15, the No.6 Lady Lions (19-3, 10-1 Big Ten) had to fight off a strong second half by the Badgers.

Penn State saw a balanced attack from Helen Darling and All-American candidate Andrea Garner who both kept the Badgers shooting blanks early. Wisconsin went 1-11 from behind the arc and shot a miserable 20 percent in the first half.

But in the second half, the Badgers came out a like a team possessed.

They pounded the glass, made good shots and put Penn State into foul trouble early in the second half.

As the Lions lead started to dwindle, backup forward Rashana Barnes was helped into the dressing room after going down with an injury midway through the second half.

The Badgers took advantage of Lions lack of depth underneath the basket, led by LaTonya Sims and Jessie Stomski who pounded the boards for 29 of Wisconsins 41 rebounds.

The duo continued to show its strength and brought Wisconsin back to within four points of Penn State with less than three minutes left to play.

But it was the strong shooting of Darling that shut the Badgers down. The senior guard continued to find ways keep Wisconsin on its toes.

In one instance midway through the second half, Darling was on a breakaway with teammate Katerna Carr and made a strong look as if she was going pass the ball but keep it herself and took it to the basket while drawing the foul.

"Helen made a big time shot in the last few minutes. 'Dre' made some nice rebounds. Everyone of them at least did one thing and we got a win and that's all we really want," Penn State women's basketball coach Rene Portland said.

Despite the poor shooting in the second half the Lions did have their fair share of open looks. Penn State had a week off and its timing might have played into that. The Lions now will have another week off before they Purdue Sunday.

"This a great win," Portland said. " Our kids went in and played some great minutes for us. Marissa did a great job since this isn't an easy place to win in," Portland said.