UNIVERSITY PARK — The first four minutes told much of the story of the Penn State Lady Lions basketball game against No. 14 Maryland on Wednesday, Jan. 29.
Playing in the annual “Return to Rec” game, Penn State started cold and saw the Terps race out to an 11-point lead that they never relinquished in an 82-73 victory over Penn State.
Maryland continued to add to its advantage through the first half, taking a 41-24 lead into the locker rooms, and it was able to hold off a furious Nittany Lion comeback rally for its 17th win of the season against just four losses.
Two four shots by Kaylene Smikle gave the Terps a 15-4 lead at the six-minute mark in the first quarter, and they increased that to 21-6 with 2:44 to play.
The quarter ended at 23-7, and even though Penn State outscored Maryland 66-59 the rest of the way, the Lions were not able to sufficiently close the gap.
Led by center Gracie Merkle, who finished the game with 24 points, Penn State returned to form in the second quarter.
Two layups by Merkle midway through the period brought Penn State to within 32-21, but Maryland subsequently got two foul shots and a 3-pointer by Sarah Te-Blasu to move back to a 15-point lead.
The quarter ended at 41-24, but Penn State was about to put up 49 points in the second half and seriously make a run at the Maryland lead.
With the lead cut to 62-49 going into the final 10 minutes, Penn State kept chipping away.
Two layups by PSU’s Gabby Elliott, a jumper by Tamera Johnson, another layup by Elliott and a free throw by Jayla Oden — suddenly Penn State was within 64-58.
Penn State then forced a turnover, and Elliott was there again with another layup that put the score at 64-60.
Maryland scored on a jumper, but Elliott was not cooling off yet. She made a free throw, 66-61 and then a 3-pointer that made it a one-score game at 66-64 with 5:06 to play.
From here, the teams traded baskets before Maryland began to take over the game in the final four minutes of play.
The Terps scored four consecutive times down the court to lead 75-66 even though Elliott was still doing all she could to keep her team in contention.
Elliott scored Penn State’s final 7 points, but her last score, with 35 seconds left, closed the gap to just 7 points, 80-73.
Maryland finished the scoring from the foul line with 16 seconds remaining.
Merkle led Penn State with 24 points in the game, with Elliott scoring 23 and Johnson 9.
In the critical first quarter, the Lions shot just 3-for-14 from the field and 0-for-5 from beyond the arc. For the game, the Lions were just 2-for-13 on 3-point shots.
The loss dropped the Penn State record to 10-12 overall and 1-10 in the Big Ten.
Coming up for the Lions will be a home game against Washington followed by a trip to Northwestern on Sunday, Feb. 9.
