Rutgers ousts Lady Lions from Big Ten tourney

By PHILIP CMOR
[email protected]

INDIANAPOLIS — A short stay in the Big Ten tournament will mean a long offseason for the Penn State women’s basketball team.

“Obviously we got to get better and the first area for me is toughness. We got to recruit to toughness. We got to recruit to a lion heart mentality and play the way that Penn State deserves,” Lady Lion coach Carolyn Kieger said after the 12th-seeded Lady Lions were ousted by 13th-seeded Rutgers, resoundingly, 75-50, in the opening round on Wednesday, March 2 at Gainbridge Fieldhouse.

“That’s all stuff that we need to fix and I need to fix.”

Penn State was outscored by 19 in the second half by the Scarlet Knights in finishing the year 11-18. The Lady Lions lost 11 of their last 13 games.

“There’s a lot to work on, myself individually, and then the team too,” Lady Lion junior point guard Makenna Marisa said.

Marisa finished with 15 points, seven rebounds and five assists. Leilani Kapinus led Penn State with 16 points and 13 rebounds and tied Marisa for team high with three steals.

No one else netted more than five points for the Lady Lions, who were outscored 40-20 in the paint, outrebounded by 22 and only made five field goals and one 3-pointer in the second half.

“Obviously we’re very disappointed in how we played today, the fight, the level of intensity, the toughness, lack thereof, that we had,” Kieger said. “Penn State deserves better. The jersey deserves better. The game deserves better.”

Penn State was up by one on a Kapinus 3-pointer with 3:35 left in the second quarter before an 11-2 Rutgers run.

The Lady Lions scored just three points in the first 6:47 of the second half. Rutgers (11-19) bolted to a 19-point lead and never looked back.

Penn State scored the first four points of the game on buckets by Marisa and Niya Beverley. Marisa hit a jumper in the paint on a feed from Ali Brigham for a 6-5 Lady Lion lead at the 4:26 mark of the opening quarter, but Rutgers’ Shug Dickson answered right back and the Knights only trailed once after that, on Kapinus’ second-quarter trey.

“It’s definitely frustrating,” Marisa said. “When my shots aren’t falling, I got to get to the rim. That’s something I got to work on. Drawing contact, getting fouls, that’s something I didn’t do today and that was a mental thing.”

Kieger concurred. Penn State didn’t score more than 14 points in any quarter and had just eight assists.

“We don’t run offense and we over-dribble and we kind of go into an over-dribble and not pass game and that’s what happened again,” Kieger said. “It’s been the Achilles heel of this team where when we get nervous and anxiety hits or a run is happening, we shut down and we shut down mentally and we just kind of lose our heads and we got to fix that.

“We talk about competitive greatness all the time, being at your best when your best is needed, and we did not do that this year and we got to find a way to be able to do that.”

MARISA, KAPINUS HONORED

UNIVERSITY PARK — Marisa was chosen a consensus first-team all-Big Ten player on Tuesday, March 1 by both conference coaches and media.

Marisa is the first Lady Lion to be named to the first-team since Kamaria McDaniel in 2020.

Marisa scored 22.2 points per game to lead Penn State while also averaging 4.2 assists and 4.2 rebounds. She shot 34.1% from 3-point range and 83.6% at the foul line.

Kapinus was voted to the Big Ten all-freshman team by the coaches. She finished the season leading Penn State with 5.7 rebounds and scoring 9.6 points per outing. She was the only player in the Big Ten this year with 55 steals and 30 blocked shots.

Graduate student Kelly Jekot won the conference’s sportsmanship award for the second straight year. Jekot returned from a knee injury last January to average 3.8 points, 2.3 rebounds and 1.2 assists.