Lady Lions Play for Outright Big Ten Title

After a huge game against Michigan last week where the No. 7 Lady Lions (22-3 overall, 13-1 Big Ten) clinched a share of the Big Ten regular-season title, they head to Minnesota (16-12, 5-9). A win tonight will secure the Big Ten championship outright. It would be the third time the Lady Lions have won back-to-back Big Ten regular season titles, and the first time since the 2002-03 and 2003-04 seasons.

Penn State will have to slow down the Gopher’s Big Ten leading 44.6 percent field goal percentage. The Lady Lions are led by Maggie Lucas who was recently awarded her third Big Ten player of the week honor of the season. Penn State won an early season match-up against Minnesota, 64-59 at the BJC.

Minnesota will be glad to have home court advantage, where they’ve tallied 12 of their 16 wins this season. The Gophers have won seven of their last eight home games against Penn State.

During the game expect Lucas, who is 24th on Penn State’s all time scoring list, to break into the Top 20. It’s only her junior season, but she needs just ten points to do so.

Senior guard Alex Bentley is also climbing the stat charts. She currently sits third all-time in steals and needs just one more to tie for second.

With a conference record of 13-1 the Lady Lions have a two game lead over No. 20 Nebraska. A game against Nebraska happens to be the final match-up on the Lady Lions’ schedule on March 2. A loss tonight could add much more meaning to next week’s match-up. But the Lions have a chance to wrap up the title chase tonight against Minnesota.

IMAGE Steve Osborne