Penn State women’s basketball (13-15, 4-13 Big Ten) fell to Purdue (18-8, 9-7 Big Ten) on Wednesday night, losing 86-62 on the road.

The loss was Penn State’s fifth in a row, as it continues its trend of woes to high-powered Big Ten opponents. Additionally, the blunder ensured that the Lady Lions would not reach a .500 win rate in the regular season for the fifth-straight cycle.

How It Happened

Purdue needed just four seconds to score against Penn State, winning the tip off and securing a quick layup. The Boilermakers needed just 1:06 to force Carolyn Kieger to call a timeout, who’s sqaud carried a 8-0 deficit into the pause.

Penn State scored its first point of the game after about three minutes when Chanaya Pinto went 1-for-2 at the free-throw line. Seconds later, Shay Ciezki followed up with a three-pointer, then a layup after that. Penn State wasn’t pulling back, but it was generating some offense.

Purdue made one last effort to pull away a bit more before the end of the first quarter with a three-point play in its dying seconds. While Penn State’s offense had started to produce, it was still losing 26-12 while shooting 35.7% from the field.

Less than two minutes into the second quarter, Purdue took charge of a 20-point lead. Four layups from the Boilermakers outpaced two free throws from Ciezki, as the home side continued to flex its dominance.

The Lady Lions pulled the deficit back to 15 points about halfway through the quarter, but it took two back-to-back plays for Purdue to restore its 20-point lead. Penn State was hitting shots at half the rate of its opponent and struggled to keep up with Purdue’s pace of play.

Penn State finished the first half down 57-34. It was the third-straight game where the Lady Lions finished the first half losing by 10 or more points, as they allowed Purdue to hit shots at a 64% clip.

The second half didn’t fare much better for Kieger’s crew, either. It struggled to bring the game back early on, as the Lady Lions continued to shoot at a poor pace.

Toward the end of the quarter, Penn State began to slowly peel at the large deficit. A late 10-0 run improved the scoring gap that the Lady Lions faced, but they were still losing 73-52 at the end of three quarters.

Any hope of a comeback was stopped short in the fourth quarter. The Lady Lions were unable to put together any semblance of a late-game push, and a mid-quarter scoring drought all but ended the game.

Purdue cruised to an 86-62 win over Penn State, avenging the loss it had suffered at the Bryce Jordan Center in January.

Takeaways

• In most of its recent Big Ten contests, Penn State’s just about lost the game from the opening possession. It’s struggling to compete early on, and its opponents are cruising on to easy wins. Right now, it’s tough to see this team challenge for any sort of run in the Big Ten tournament.
• Ciezki has been taking a back seat on the Lady Lions’ offense as of late, but against Purdue, she put up one of her best performances of the season. She dropped 18 points, four rebounds, and three assists in the loss.

What’s Next

Penn State plays its final game of the regular season against Michigan State at 2 p.m. on Saturday, February 25 at the Bryce Jordan Center.