On To The Next One...Lady Lions Win 75-66

Sprinting out of the locker room, the Lady Lions and Dayton Flyers continued the pace the rest of the way to tip off the 2011 Women’s NCAA Tournament in the 75-66 victory over the Dayton Flyers.

Pacing the offense for the Lady Lions was not “Machine Gun Maggie Lucas” as we’ve come to expect from the freshman phenom, but rather sophomore Alex Bentley.

The first team All Big Ten guard has shown inconsistency this season, but really came to play in this first round game. Bentley shot 7 of 15 from the field for 14 points and four assists in the first half, including a Talor Battle-esque shot to close out the half just before the buzzer sounded.

In the second half, it was the same story. Bentley finished with TWENTY EIGHT shots in the contest, connecting on twelve shots and accumulating 25 points.

Lady Lions take on Dayton in NCAA 1st Round

TIME/VENUE: 11 a.m. at the Bryce Jordan Center, so there's no excuse to not attend.
TV: The game will air on ESPN2 with Justin Kutcher and Brenda VanLengen calling the action.
RADIO: Our boy Ryan will be calling the game today on ComRadio, and online at PSUComRadio.com.
LAST MTG: Nov. 12, 2010 / Recap

Unlike the Nittany Lions, the Lady Lions head into their opening NCAA tournament game having a long layoff, not unlike the layoff in between football's regular season and most bowl games. And just as with those football teams who are sitting around at home getting fat and lazy, Coquese Washington had to answer questions about the 13-day break between the Big Ten title game and today's game.

Lady Lions scoring 103 points per game

Zhaque Gray (Photo: GoPSUsports.com)

Ok, so it's only two games into the season, and one of those games went into double overtime. But Penn State's Lady Lions are off to a good start, especially on offense, with a two-game scoring average of 103.5.

PSU 112, Dayton 107 (2-OT)

Following the "pre-season" exhibition game with Gannon (PSU W, 91-58), the regular season got underway Friday at Dayton. The Flyers proved to be a scrappy opponent, and a good test for a very young Lady Lions squad.

In a double overtime win, you would think the most important shots would fall in the extra periods. This time, that'd be wrong. Junior guard Zhaque Gray sunk a pair of three-pointers in the final 80 seconds to tie the game and force overtime. It was a clutch play, twice over.

Penn State seemed to have the game in hand early, jumping out to leads of 12-3 and 14-4 in the first five minutes of the first period. But Dayton started to get hot, going on a 12-4 run to cut the Lady Lions' lead to just two, 18-16. A scoring frenzy ensued the rest of the way, as the teams were tied at 40 going into the break.

The second half seemed to be swaying towards Penn State, which was able to break the deadlock by going up 50-46. The lead was short-lived, however, as Dayton again made basket after basket. As bad as it was getting for the Lady Lions, it was far from over. Things went from tense to bleak in a hurry.