UNIVERSITY PARK — Those fighting breast cancer and their families were the big winners on Saturday, Feb. 3, as a season-high 4,745 fans came out to the Bryce Jordan Center for Penn State women’s basketball’s 18th Pink Zone Game.
Unfortunately, the Lady Lions couldn’t make it a daily double, seeing their six-game winning streak come to an end at the hands of Michigan, 80-75.
The setback dropped Penn State into fifth place in the Big Ten Conference heading into the week, behind Michigan State. Both squads are 7-4 in the Big Ten, but the Spartans defeated the Lady Lions head to head earlier this season.
Penn State dipped to 16-6 overall. The Lady Lions were an 80-64 winner at Minnesota on Wednesday, Jan. 31.
“We were just giving up a little too much space on defense,” Penn State assistant coach Pam Brown said after the Michigan loss. “You can’t give them open shots, and we were doing that.”
The game turned on a 19-4 run that spanned the last 1:34 of the second quarter into the first 2:05 of the second half. Sophomore guard Shay Ciezki’s short jumper had just staked Penn State to a 29-27 lead before the surge.
The Lady Lions trailed by as many as 14 before the end of the third, quarter and Elissa Brett’s 3-pointer 34 seconds into the fourth made it an 18-point difference.
Penn State ended the game on a 14-5 run over the final 2:04 but it wasn’t enough.
Ashley Owusu fronted the Lady Lions with 18 points and five rebounds, while Leilani Kapinus came up with a double-double of 15 points and 10 rebounds to go along with three steals and three assists.
Ciezki scored 13 and Makenna Marisa 9 for Penn State. The Lady Lions’ Ali Brigham and Chanaya Pinto just missed double figures with 9 and 7 points, respectively. Pinto also pulled down seven rebounds.
Penn State played without guard Tay Valladay, who got hurt after playing just nine minutes in the win at Minnesota.
Penn State only had 9 bench points, although it did shoot 50.9% and outrebounded the Wolverines 35-25. The Lady Lions, though, were just 31.3% from 3-point range, making three fewer treys than Michigan.
The Lady Lions recognized more than 200 survivors of breast cancer at halftime. PA Pink Zone has raised more than $3.2 million through the game since it was first played in 2007.
Owusu tallied 17 points, 11 rebounds and six assists and Ciezki scored a team-high 18 off the bench — making four 3-pointers — in the win at Minnesota.
Penn State had 19 points off turnovers and 13 fast-break points in the win. Kapinus and Marisa also hit double figures with 16 and 13 points, respectively.
Marisa also collected six rebounds and five assists.
Penn State surged to a 13-point lead late in the first quarter and never looked back against the Golden Gophers, who never got the margin beneath 7 after that.
Kapinus’ layup with 3:59 left gave Penn State its largest lead of the contest at 24.
