Penn State head coach Coquese Washington is one of the rising young coaches in women’s basketball. A four-year starter and team captain at Notre Dame as student-athlete, she spent eight years as an assistant for the Fighting Irish; and since arriving in College Park five years ago has returned the Lady Lions to NCAA prominence.
“Basketball is about match ups. To me it’s that simple,” she said, in talking about facing the Huskies on Sunday afternoon in a Sweet 16 NCAA Tournament game. The game takes place in Kingston, R.I., at 4:30 p.m. and will be broadcast on ESPN2, WTIC, and WHUS.
“You have to talk about the game and the match ups and what we have to do to be successful,” Washington added. “When you start worrying about other things outside of the match ups and what’s going to happen in between those four lines [around the court], I think you get yourself in trouble.”
Penn State likes to play at a fast pace and has averaged 76.2 points per game, just under UConn’s 76.3-point average. While Washington was talking about player match ups, the difference in the overall team match up is on the defensive side, where the Lady Lions give up 62 points and the Huskies give up a nation’s best 45.1 points, including an NCAA Tournament record 26 against Kansas State last week.
Which is why when asked what a comfortable score might be for her team against UConn, Washington smiled, saying: “A game where we’re up by one when the buzzer goes off. That would be a comfortable score for me.”
Geno Auriemma said he is not concerned with the Huskies’ ability to score points, but hopes his team will maintain its defensive prowess against a team that likes to score in transition.
“It is going to be a challenge for our guys to get back on defense and match up real quickly,” he said. “In games where Penn State has gotten off a lot of shots, they have been extremely successful. I think we’ll be fine scoring, but we are going to have to do a good job of limiting their possessions.”
Penn State (26-6) arrives in Kingston having defeated No. 13 seed UTEP and No. 5 seed LSU. The Lady Lions had their first back-to-back 25-win season since 2002-03 and 2003-04. The Huskies last met Penn State in the Maggie Dixon Classic in Madison Square Garden in 2008, winning by a score of 77-63, but will play a home-and-home series against the Lady Lions beginning next season.
Penn State is led by All-Big Ten First Team selections Maggie Lucas, a sophomore guard averaging 19.6 points per game, and junior guard Alex Bentley, (14.3), who also was an All-Defensive Big Ten selection. The Lady Lions’ rebounders are center Nikki Green, a 6-4 junior, who averages 8 rebounds and 10.1 points, and junior forward Mia Nickson (7.9). Senior guard Zhaque Gray averages 10.7 points per game.
“They all know how to score in the paint and behind the three-point line,” said sophomore center Stefanie Dolson ’14 (CLAS). “We just have to do a good job of focusing on defense and knowing what a good offensive team they are and shut them down. They’re going to make shots. We have to do a really good job of getting through screens, calling out screens, talking on defense. With that we’ll get defensive stops and transition into our offense.”
Washington said one of Penn State’s challenges is the diversity of the Huskies’ offense this season, which does not rely on a single player for its scoring, a situation that Auriemma’s young team worked its way through during the season.
“They have so many play makers,” she said. “The danger is if you focus on one or two, they have other people who will step up and have big games. Every one of their starters is capable of having a big night.”
Yet it has been the first-year players coming off the bench for the Huskies in recent weeks who have made the difference at critical points during the post-season. Freshman Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis ’15 (CLAS) was the Most Outstanding Player of the Big East Tournament and has been averaging 18 points per game in the NCAA Tournament, while freshman center Kiah Stokes ’15 (CLAS) has picked up her play with 19 points and 16 rebounds in the tournament.
“I just have to keep working hard,” Stokes said. “We only have one true post player, Stefanie, and she can’t play 40 minutes, so I have to be there. My teammates are counting on me to do that. I watch Stef a lot to see what she does [in the game] and go off of that. But the most effective thing is when I’m in the game.”
Penn State’s Bentley said her team goes into each game with a high degree of confidence.
“We’re a good team, they’re a good team. It’s going to be a fun game to watch,” Bentley said. “We like to get it going in transition. UConn likes to get it going in transition. It might be an up-and-down game.”
