Big Ten Title Within Sight as Maggie Lucas Leads Penn State to Win Over Northwestern, 82-73

The long regular season for the Penn State Lady Lion basketball team is winding down and a third consecutive Big Ten title is within sight after the Lady Lions defeated Northwestern in the Bryce Jordan Center Thursday night.

For Penn State players, now 12-2 in conference play, the title is theirs to lose. The team continues to stand one game ahead of Michigan State and Nebraska in the conference standings.

Penn State will now set its sights on the final 2 games; at Nebraska on Monday night; and then a season finale next Saturday when Michigan comes to town. I think you can see the importance of those final 2 games.

But to get to this point, Penn State needed a win over the Wildcats to stay atop the standings and behind Maggie Lucas’ 26 points, the Lady Lions took the game 82-73.

Northwestern did not go down without a fight, cutting a Lady Lion 13 point lead late in the game down to just five with less than a minute to play. Key free throws from freshman Kaliyah Mitchell, who made all seven of her foul shots down the stretch, made it possible for Penn State to get the victory.

Lucas was one of four Lady Lions in double figures. Ariel Edwards scored 15 after struggling from the field for most of the game. Tori Waldner had a career high 14 points and Dara Taylor chipped in with 11. Mitchell scored nine and pulled down 8 rebounds.

Assistant coach Kia Damon told us after the game this team is doing some really good things and continues to grow as a team both on and off the court which is leading to a fun season.

The season could get a lot more “funner” if the Lady Lions can grab a hold of that Big Ten trophy with wins at Nebraska and in the season closer with Michigan the following Saturday.

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